Realm of Chaos
by Ordrossal
Summary: Both men spray a mist of .30caliber ammunition into another infiltrator coming down from the tree line, left of the main road. When the agent is marred in two by the M1919A6s, the supportgunners cease fire and check their boxcartridges for ammunition...
1. Disclaimer

Disclaimer: I do not own Mortal Kombat or Call of Duty, any of its characters nor all of the events taking place in accordance to the movies, games or comic books.

! Confessions ! 

'First Things First'

My primary inspiration aside from my nightmares, 007 nightfire, and Call of Duty was another Fanfic author known as XiahouDun84. I read his 'Kitana Redemption' story back in 2004 and frankly couldn't take my eyes off of it. At the edge of my seat the whole time, the most amazing first-person-based sequence I have ever laid eyes on. So in a way, I'll give him more than half the credit for turning my bad case of writers block into a potentially awesome story.

On a footnote, I did not steal XiahouDun84's plot, his story more-so familiarized with Kitana and some of the other characters like Mileena, Jade, Shao Kahn, and Sindel.

Improvements

I took out as much sci-fi mumbo-jumbo as I could without screwing up my original plot, and explained as much as I could about most of the characters, weapons and devices without sounding too much like a dork.

Summary/initial plot

Playing off of Mortal Kombat II Annihilation and probably some of the comics as well, and some minor sequences from XiahouDun84's Kitana Redemption story, a biologically enhanced organization of terrorist soldiers, manufactured by Bison Inc. corrupt Shao Kahn's plans of merging Earth Realm with Outworld after losing the initial Mortal Kombat tournament. To the Emperor's demise, he must now delay and abort his plans, to ally with two small teams of mortal soldiers from Earth Realm and fight to save his empire from the technologically advanced Godlike invaders.

Oh yeah… If you have any questions about anything at all regarding this story, contact via E-mail: and I'll answer any of your questions within 24hours.

**Enjoy and Don't Review on My Disclaimer! **


	2. Betrayal

Realm of Chaos

Chapter 1

'Betrayal'

In the afternoon souring high over the Caspian Sea, was a black-silver two-tone Behemoth-class B-17. Onboard was a prototype warp-core the Knackamichie Corporation sought to test on human subjects. It was a metallic shaft-like object about 5ft tall and 14inches in circumference, it weighed about 80lbs due to its dense unknown core material and lead-armor outer hull. The human subjects were Andy Chain, Thomson IV, and their instruction officer, Major Jo Harding. Thomson IV was a commando about the age of 17, possibly older… Thomson IV was the fourth reincarnation of Thomson McLarin. -Though the boy had only died once, German prophecy identified him as the fourth incarnate. The commando could only be described as a slack-muscled, pail, character with a skinned face, and translucent flesh-entwined teeth. His eyes appeared to be gouged out, but if you got close enough, you could see his disk-shaped, ruby red, transparent, blood-vessel entwined bare retinas; quivering in the back of his eye sockets.

All who know him say he went to Hell, then fought his way back, others find him to be insane, his doctors outside Knackamichie Corp. say he suffers from a permanent phase of dementia; -the evangelical Christians and Catholics say he is 'pure evil incarnate.' Thomson was an expert at weapons trajectory, his primary weapons being a desert camouflaged Panzerschrek, (German bazooka) a Desert Eagle .50cal Magnum, and a German MG-42 light-machinegun from the 2nd SS Panzer Division. He primarily operated a prototype German Tiger I battle tank he built during his training at Knackamichie Corp. Andy Chan was a class-1 Knichian Strider about the age of 11.

Andy was very small for his age, coming from Japanese and Philippine heritages. The boy had brown eyes, olive skin, small hands and feet, and strait black hair parted in the middle. Andy was an expert in Japanese sword-fighting techniques and had precise judgment. His primary weapons were, a custom ceramic-titanium Kitana, (sword) a Japanese 7.7mm Type-96 light-machinegun, and a Soviet RPG-7V mounted with a 2x magnification scope. He operated a customized reintroduced version of the Type-97 Chi-Cha battle tank he created during his training at the Kaiiser Corp. training facility.

Quick note on the 'Strider…'

Striders are ether endangered-servants, or rejects from society, typically trained from adolescence to be mercenaries for the Knackamichie Corporation. Class-1 Striders are on the level and rank of a Kamikaze or in other-words expendable, (typically more skilled in grunt-work, demolition, operating heavy military machinery and assembling weapons from scrap.) Class-2 are on the level of CIA operatives and are in-expendable (typically more skilled in infiltration, Special Operations, or raids.) Class-3 are similar to the FBI and typically lack knowledge in infiltration or grunt work. (They specialize in accounting, or tracking people through credit cards, bank accounts or Internet usage. Ranking above average in mathematics and possessing extensive knowledge of computer programming.) 'OK, SORRY FOR THE HOLD-UP…

Jo Harding was a drill instructor and excellent military trainer for Knackamichie Corp, and a pilot in the Knichian Air Force. Jo was a leggy blond with flirty icy blue eyes and medium sized breasts. Jo was an excellent strategist, and specialized in hacking, and cracking. Her primary weapon was a custom Berretta 92F outfitted with a self-sustained ammunition clip and armor-piercing rounds. During a demonstration she once nailed a bull's-eye on the top of the Statue of Liberty while on a rocking boat 45yrds out. Aside from the corporate subjects, were two miscellaneous faces from the Bison Corporation, Tim Dunson and his sister Millennia Dunson; the two were representatives for Bison himself whom sought to buy the warp-core off of Knackamichie Corp. but only after it being tested on live human subjects and some type of large vessel, in this case, a modified bomber.

Tim Dunson was a pen pusher a little older than Jo. He tended to be very optimistic and used allot of big-words while talking to women, aiming to make them feel inferior to him. He was basically a male chauvinist… Tim was slender, had neatly combed brown hair, green eyes, a slack jaw, bony hands and tan-colored skin tone. He specialized in Nuclear Physics, and bioengineering. His sister Millennia was a Jr. Scientist receiving training from her father at the Bison Corporate building in New York. She specialized in physiology, projectile warfare, hacking, cracking and tracking animals, people and vehicles using only the environment to her advantage.

Her downfall in the eyes of her associates was her side-hobby of medalling with the supernatural, and investigating the phenomenon of 'Afterlife,' 'Reincarnation' and other unexplained endeavors of the spirit-world. She was far more elevated than a paranormal investigator; though often mistaken as one, Millennia did not believe in aliens and UFO's or Bigfoot, she didn't even believe that man landed on the moon in 69.' Her hobby would ultimately limit the availability of opportunities in her field of work. She primarily found Thomson IV to be anonymous, finding it odd that a person with such extensive facial abrasions could not only survive but also not complain of any pain. Regardless of her curiosity, Millennia knew nothing of 'The German Prophecy,' and stayed silent about the affair not wanting to offend the commando with her questions.

'The German Prophecy' was written By Lex Luther, the same man who translated the Greek-written Bible into German words. It was a document hidden in a secret cellar under his house detailing a vision he had about a WWII German Tank Commander of the 2nd SS Panzer Division, that would first die and be reincarnated four times, then on the fifth incarnation, take Hell from Satan for the sake of the woman he unconditionally loved and turn it into a sanctuary, where the evil souls would be imprisoned according to their sins, but never tortured or harmed; and where lost souls would be nurtured and allowed to live in eternal peace, as an alternative to forfeiting Heaven. So there they were, four subjects about to embark on a strange journey. The plan was to use the warp core to travel to another plain/dimension then after six seconds return home and file a status report, then all human subjects would undergo pulmonary physical testing.

"So how much farther do we have to go before we flip the switch on this thing?" Thomson asked twirling around in the dossal turret and firing several bursts of his dual .50cal anti-aircraft gun into the vast sky. Jo, who was piloting the plane replied, "60more miles hun, just sixty more miles…" Andy twirling around in the bottom bubble turret adds, "Hey Jo, if you fly a little lower I think I can hit a flock of seagulls from here!" The boy then fires a long burst of shells from his dual .50cal giggling as a mist of blood broke out over the vast ocean below him.

"Andy, calm down before I dip you in the water for shark bait." Jo smiled as the plane hit some turbulence. "Hey Jo, why is Knackamo making us fly out so far from civilization to test this thing anyway?" Thomson asked pitching the dossal turret up and down until he felt dizzy. "Because tests in the past have indicated that once this core is activated, it emits its toxic waste material in the form of an airborne disturbance or shockwave that can span over 1,000 square miles. These waves can cause an outbreak of mental paralysis and bone cancers." Jo replied dropping in altitude as Andy requested and laughing as clatters of gunfire erupted below her feet.

"If it's that dangerous, then why the hell does Bison Corp wanna buy it?" Thomson asked pivoting the dossal turret to face the tail rotor. "Bison claims he has developed an electrostatic-shield capable of dispersing the shockwave, making the device 100times more durable." Jo replied climbing in altitude once Andy's gunfire ceased. "Hey Jo, it's gettin hot up here, can I take the tail-gun till it cools off?" "Sure, try not to step on the ball turret, Andy spins allot and you might get your foot caught."

Jo replied as Thomson climbed down from the dossal turret and crossed the bomb bay platform, moving passed the com station where the two guests sat, passed the .50cal browning machineguns on ether side of the corridor and hopping on the dual .50cal tail-gun. "Cool, now I can shoot the ocean. 'Vengeance to the bird who pooped on me…'" The commando commented opening fire on a flock of seagulls tailing 100yrds behind the bomber. After the boy converts the white sheet of birds to a mist of broken frames and feathers, he turns to look at Millennia, noticing how beautiful she was. Ever since she'd boarded, she would stare down at the ground with sad puppy eyes, seemingly troubled about something. Thomson could tell she was on the brink of crying. Millennia would make eye contact with the commando briefly then resume her peril-less stare into the floor grates.

She didn't seem as jumpy about his appearance as Tim was. The young man seemed very confident and always optimistic about things. Thomson found optimistic people to be very suspicious, he believed there was a fine line between optimistic, and just plain stupid. _"The guy probably thinks he can fly a battered German Stuka dive bomber into the sun and come out the other side, what a pretty-boy…"_ Thomson thought resting his eyes on Millennia's smooth shapeful legs. _"God she's beautiful, I wonder if she's hiding something? Maybe she's suicidal…" _

He thought then pausing at Tim._ "Or maybe Pretty-boy over there has somethin up his sleeve that involves stealing the warp core to avoid having to pay for it. Look at him, he never stops staring at it, he's like a warp-core perv, though I'm a tank perv, -hardly the point! I need to talk to her, soon, before the jump. But how do you get privacy on a B-17, it's not like we can shack up in a bathroom and talk."_ Thomson thought resuming his gaze at Millennia as she read a book, '1984.' "Okay guys get ready, the checkpoint is just ahead!" Jo called back from the cockpit as Thomson jumped up and made his way to the front of the plane, picking up his MG-42 and war-painted tan Panzerschrek. He then went up to Jo and dropped a Berretta 92F on her lap whispering, _"Fowl-play detected…" _and then crossing the bomb-bay platform and stooping over the bottom ball turret.

The commando eased the hatch open then dropped Andy's Type96 and RPG-7V on the glass floor of the bubble, whispering the same words he meant to Jo, and closing the hatch. When the boy looked up, he found Tim staring at him with a modestly hostile look on his face. Millennia seemed to stare at the commando in petty as he made his way back to the tail-gun. "I figure wherever this warp-core takes us, I'll get a couple frags and bring home a hunting souvenir for my other partner Jenna." Thomson said trying to throw off Tim's suspicion. "What could you possibly do in six seconds?" Tim asked in a heavy tone. Thomson changed out the ammunition drum on his MG-42 before replying, "more than you're worth… More than you can imagine… Killing is second nature to me; I was spawned as a killing machine, and then trained for things far worse… I've been to a place you couldn't comprehend unless you've been there yourself, and maybe, just maybe-, you'll get a 6second tour of where I speak…" The commando said lighting a cigar and letting it roll around in his flesh-entwined translucent teeth.

Millennia's mouth dropped after she took a good long look at the commando, realizing where he'd been, why his face was so torn up, why he was so pale, his transparent ruby-red disc-shaped eyes, the woman suddenly grew uneasy about the situation, whispering something into Tim's ear causing him took look back at Thomson and shake his head. "Thomson? Activate the warp-core and get back to the dossal turret!" Jo called as the boy strapped his weapons to his back and typed in a few digits on a keypad next to the core. After the boy received a compliant beep, he shot a scuttle glance at Tim then ran to the front of the plane and climbed into the dossal turret. After everyone was stowed away at their posts, Tim gets up quietly from his post and signals Millennia to work on the keypad via the warp core. Millennia shook her head starting to tear up and then complied once Tim taunted her with a Glock-18.

The woman attached an additional device to the keypad then typed in a few more digits with encrypted letters separating each one, after getting a compliant beep, she detached the device, pocketed it. "Entering slipstream in five…" Jo called as the scenery blurred, being converted into a twirling funnel of cancerous flesh. Seconds later, the interior of the plane came out of the flux, ending over a vast war-zone with some deciduous greenery and red hill slopes rich with iron. When Jo looked up at the sky, she noticed it was stormy, complete with atomic purple clouds and black masses of molten tar fluxing in twisted patterns. Suddenly, she heard clatters of gunfire from both the dossal and bubble turrets then noticing hordes of dragon like creatures diving in and spraying the wings of the plane with highly volatile nitrous-napalm. "What the fuck are these things and why aint we back home yet?" Thomson called suddenly falling out of the dossal turret with his pant-legs on fire.

"Shit! Dossal turret compromised, engines 1 and 4 are on fire!" The boy said as Jo began evasive maneuvers yelling, "Shut-off the fuel valves before we explode and then man the tail-gun, the bastards are swooping in from behind us!" Thomson runs over to the rear end of the bomb bay, turning a valve on ether side of the corridor. After that, the commando shoved passed Tim, who seemed astonished by the event and manned the tail-gun, shattering the frames of twelve incoming dragons along with Andy. The two boys found themselves overwhelmed by the massive array of tangled flesh and flames that seemed to spill over the plane as they concentrated streams of ammunition towards the rear. "Thomson, man one of the side .50cals and cover me, I need to reload!" Andy called over the COM link. Thomson somersaulted out of the tail-gun then dove onto one of the browning machineguns firing wildly into the chest of a flanking dragon, covering his face as the flame-jets covered the frame of the port hole in napalm.

"Awe Dammit!" He yelled letting go of the machinegun handles and cradling his burning hands then reaching for his MG-42. Millennia felt the urge to help the crew and manned the browning machinegun on the other side of the corridor, snapping the wings off one of the creatures then causing several to explode when she fired into their mouths. Behind her, the bellowing of Thomson's MG-42 canceled out all the background noises as it echoed in the metal asylum. When gunfire was heard from the bottom bubble turret, Thomson withdrew from his now flaming post and fired jittery bursts of ammunition into the growing horde of dragons with the dual .50cal tail gun. Suddenly there was a jolt, and then an explosion near the back of the bomb bay at one of the com centers. Millennia grabbed a fire extinguisher and sprayed the fire the best she could, unable to get very close to the napalm without burning herself. "Guys what was that?" Jo called back throwing the plane into a barrel roll sending Tim hitting the ceiling as Millennia clung to the chassis of the hull.

Jo shot a glance back withdrawing in panic when she spotted the bombs in the bay catching fire. "Shit! The 4,000lb bombs are on fire! Put it out or we're dead!" Jo yelled as the glass on the nose turret shattered from the heat. Millennia threw the extinguisher to the side once it depleted and then went up to Thomson. "I can't _put out the fire_ in the bomb _bay, maybe you_ can do something?" She said over the bellowing of the MG-42, "sure we gotta drop em, we're too heavy to fly on one engine anyway!" Thomson said running to the fire, then diving through it, and cranking the manual release until the bomb-bay doors were fully open. "Jo, drop the bombs, the doors are open!" He yelled as Jo replied, "What! Why?" She called back over the crackling of the napalm in the background. "We just lost engine 2, we're too heavy to keep this altitude!" Thomson said clinging to a pole as the eight 4,000lb bombs free fell into the eerie atomic purple clouds below.

When he dove through the napalm towards the tail-gun, he found Tim holding a gun to Millennia's head. "Get off my plane the warp core is mine!" He said as Millennia struggled with his grasp. Suddenly there was an explosion, Andy lets out a sharp cry that moves to the back of the hull outside, followed by a tumbling body, shards of thick glass and a mangled dual .50cal machinegun trailing discharging ammunition. "Jo jump out of the plane!" Thomson yelled as Jo's eyes widened. "What! I can't-, oh…" She said looking back to find a hole in the floor where the bubble turret use to be, then at Tim holding his own sister for a hostage.

Jo grabs her berretta and a self-sustaining clip of ammunition jumping out the bomb bay with a parachute. Suddenly Tim shoved his sister out through the .50cal porthole on the flaming side of the corridor and shot her in the back with his Glock 18 as she fell. Thomson dove out after her firing his Panzerschrek into the belly of the plane and hitting the warp core; the 7lb hollow charge rocket bending the core at the center of its mass and dragging it out the other side of the plane with Tim clinging to its slippery lead hull. The plane is converted into a titanium white bubble explosion, which fragmented all nearby dragons with a translucent shockwave; seconds later the whole explosion being sucked into a transparent funnel in the clouds.

**Well, hope you were at least interested in this chapter; please submit review, (even if it bags on my story)**


	3. Fallen

**Incase you haven't noticed, allot of my sentences are run-ons, don't get too, annoyed…**

Chapter 2

Fallen

As the Hellion plunged to the earth, squinting as the continuously expanding shockwave merely dissipated inches from his face, he immediately met eyes with a strange girl. After getting over her fiery brown eyes, he noticed she was struggling to free her lower body from the jaws of a surviving dragon. With that discovery, Thomson crumbled to a balled-up position and sprayed a continuous stream of armor-piercing rounds into the dragon's black, scaly, neck, moving down its torso and tarring a huge gash in its belly. After that, a passing blanket of clouds obscure the commando's point of view as he nears the un-greeting land below; the ailment forcing him to hold his fire for the sake of the civilian girl. When the clouds pass and the fine details of the red ocean below become vivid, the dragon pulls away in drunken patterns, barrel-rolling inland towards an unidentified landmass, with its left wing tangled in its entrails.

Thomson spotted Millennia's broken body in the distance, diving towards her and gaining at an excessive speed as the ground rushed towards them. Once he caught up to her, the commando hugged her torso, then attached his parachute to her and pulled the cord. Continuing to fall away from her as the winds blew the woman inland. Thomson hits an ocean of red water being knocked out by the impact and drifting on his face in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly a sharp pain erupts in his left butt-cheek minutes later, and he is startled up and about, gasping for air. He spots a small object sinking into the red water next to him, and grabs for it, gazing at the metallic green and gold dragon emblem and then thinking of that mysterious girl. He spots a coastal village being attacked by the same dragons that jumped his crew and swims toward it, pocketing the emblem, tightening the strap on his rocket launcher and gripping his MG-42.

Not too far away, further inland, the vile but beautiful Kitana The Bloody sat in the frame of her window listening to the constant thudding noises of shattering bodies hitting the sides of the palace, her friend Jade sat next to her, watching in equal interest as thousands of dragons drunkenly spiraled out of the purple sky accompanied by sheets of entrails. "What's causing all of this?" Kitana asked as Jade crept out the window and looked up. Suddenly a large metallic object tumbling down the side of the palace meets her. The woman dives into the room pulling Kitana with her as the object came down with a loud metallic crash, followed by clusters of small explosions as ammunition discharged in a small fire. The women rolled around the room, trying to evade the slugs and then hid behind pieces of furniture, as the slugs seemed to penetrate everything they touched. When the explosions ceased, the two women crept out from cover and began assessing the object.

"_Property of Knackamichie Incorporated. .50cal x 12.7mm ammunition only." _Jade read on the broad side of one of the .50cal browning machineguns. Kitana notices a small hand moving within the twisted ruble and tries to lift the turret. "It's too heavy…" Kitana said surprised how heavy the object was. Jade gently moved Kitana to the side and used her small frame to maneuver into the twisted pile of metal. "Kitana! It's a small boy, pull me up!" Jade said as Kitana pulled her and the boy out of the maze of twisted pipe-like objects. "He wont let go of his shaft, nor his, -toy," Jade said as both her and Kitana struggled to free the RPG-7V and Type96 machinegun from the boy's hands. Kitana glimpsed at his dog tags reading, out loud, "Andy Chan, Property of Knackamichie Corp. Strider Class-1." "-Just put him on the bed, he'll let go of them when he comes out of shock." Jade said as Kitana ran to get some water from the Kitchen, cringing as the dragon corpses continued to hit the palace jolting the corridor with fleshy cracking noises.

As Jade stared at the Strider with a maternal expression on her face, stroking his soft black hair and smiling; -the ceiling gave way, letting a bulky metallic projectile-type object come down on Kitana's jewelry chest. Jade instinctively scooped Andy into her arms and darted over the beautifully quilted bed and out of the room down the stone corridor, staggering into a pillar when an explosion erupts and the hall is flooded with rolling pillows of flames. Jade pauses in surprise then turning to continue sprinting the corridor with the child held tightly in her arms. The assassin started to cry as the heat from the rolling, liquid-like flames tickled her back like thousands of frozen stabbing knives. She made a left into another hall, stammering and nearly tripping on the turn and then took another left down a twining staircase, which ended, on a wooden bridge that connected the network of towers that made up the palace. Jade ran-on until she got to the middle of the wood and stone composite bridge; turning to look back at the tower entrance, which overflowed with the orange life-like flames.

After coming out of an unrealized shell shock, Jade noticed screaming, thousands of screaming voices coming from below her… Clutching Andy tightly, Jade slowly clambered to the edge of the platform finding flaming soldiers diving out of windows as the liquid-like flame jets continued down to the lower levels of the tower. Suddenly, after the rolling flames spilled out of the tower's main hall, the place jolted and smoke accompanied by chunks of obsidian began pouring out of the bottom of the building. Jade began making her way to the standing tower behind her as the bridge started to develop a noticeable downward slant in the direction of the flaming tower. Slabs of wood and stone hinges began erupting from the far end of the bridge, Jade darting into the entrance of the second tower and continuing to watch from a safer distance. Then, within minutes, like a wax candle; the tower crumbled into the earth, the smoke and ash from the disaster forming a mushroom cloud where once was a strategic military structure.

After the top of the cloud began raining huge boulders onto the rest of the palace, continuing to annihilate additional members of Emperor Shao Khan's army as they fled for cover and also spilling into the entrance of the second tower where Jade hid; the assassin gained a sudden phobia of being in the tall obsidian structure and started desperately down a series of staircases and passageways to get to the lower levels.

**Hope you've gotten this far without being disappointed. As always, please submit review…**


	4. Highjacked

Chapter 3

'High-Jacked'

Meanwhile 2miles off the coast of this unknown landmass, a funnel of cancerous flesh opens about a thousand feet over the red ocean, spitting the distorted image of a tan B-17 flying fortress into existence. After the funnel seemed to dissipate, like a dispersed storm, the plane's rippling image came out of the flux heading inland where a tall trail of black smoke formed a halo over the identified landmass. Onboard was yet another model of the prototype warp core, and a crew of eight.

The bomber was dispatched to search for Jo's plane by the Teranovan government after Knackamichie lost contact with the operative for more than 20minutes. Amongst the crew of Vectorians, was a human recruit from Detroit; private Ryan J. Hopkins, the dossal turret gunner. Ryan was a muscular, handsome character with dirty-blond hair, blue eyes and slightly pink-off-white skin-tone. Ryan was a submachinegunner and an anti-tank unit, primarily wielding a Colt 1911 .45cal pistol, an M1A2 Thompson submachinegun, and an M9A1 60mm bazooka and an M.R.S. An M.R.S (Maktor Reloading System) is a backpack-sized device that converts solid objects into strands of electronically stored data.

This allows the person equipped with it to store large caliber ammunition in huge quantities. For example, Ryan's MRS contains about 10,000 A.P rounds for his .45cal Colt 1911, and his M1A2 Thompson submachinegun, plus 450rounds for his 60mm M9A1 bazooka. All allies of Knackamichie Corp. equip their soldiers with these storage devices. There are various larger types of M.R.S that serve as ammunition sources for planes, ships, and tanks… "Okay boys, we're coming up on an unidentified landmass now, lets run a status check." Capt. Wesson, the pilot, said pulling out a notepad. He paused for a minute then asking, "Pvt. Ryan? Stop mopping around and get 'into' the dossal turret." There was no reply from behind him, "Ryan? Does anyone know where Ryan went?" Wesson asked exasperated from the long flight.

One of the waist-.50cal gunners noticed he was stepping on something and looked down to find Pvt. Ryan peacefully sleeping with his M9A1 wrapped in his arms as if he were hugging his spouse, not that he had one. "Found him sir looks like he finally got some sleep!" The waist gunner said over his headset as the pilot failed to answer. "What the hell is that?" He commented, no longer concerned with Ryan's whereabouts. The waist-gunners looked at each other and shrugged then looking to the front of the plane with widened eyes. "Uh, sir? There's somethin funky happenin with the bomb-bay!" Tommy, the tail-gunner said over his headset. By this time, everyone stared at the incandescent orb of magenta-colored light, and webs of energy bolts dancing about in the bomb bay. "I don't like this…" One of the waist-gunners said shaking Ryan awake with his boot. "What the _fffu?" _Ryan commented cutting himself off as a group of humanoids shimmered into the center of the orb. Ryan strapped his M1A2 Thompson submachinegun to his back and took aim with his pre-loaded M9A1 bazooka.

Suddenly the pilots at the front of the plane let out agonizing screams for help, followed by small-arms fire and an orchestra of fleshy cracking sounds. The figures in the orb started forward out of the incandescent matrix with pistols in their hands. "PP7 56.32mm. Only Bison Corp. uses those." Ryan said as the waist-gunners set-up their M1919A6 .30cal light machineguns on ether side of him. All three men lay in prone positions as the suited men emerge from the translucent magenta colored orb and take aim. Tommy, the tail-gunner impulsively drew up his .30cal Browning automatic rifle and began spraying ammunition into the men with extreme prejudice as the others picked up on his Q.

The men seemed to be unaffected by the multiple arrays of large caliber bullets, though their torsos danced side to side from impact. Ryan waited until the killer suits grouped up and opened fire before returning a powerful blow with his bazooka, sending one clear out the cockpit window and the others cart-wheeling into ether sides of the hull. As he reached for another M7A1 3.5lb rocket in his backpack, several more killer suits emerged from the incandescent orb firing Scoped SG-550 5.56mm assault rifles. Ryan rolls to the back of the plane, bringing down the back of one of the .50cal M2 Browning machineguns in front of him for cover as he quickly shoved the shaped charge into the exhaust port of his bazooka.

He then leaned out and fired a 60mm rocket into the torso of one of the killer suits, sending him into the cockpit controls and decapitating the other two. The remaining one was backed up by six more whom where bombarded with .30cal ammunition and sent staggering into the front of the plane, disabling the autopilot when a corpse smashed the controls. Ryan launched another 60mm rocket into the magenta-colored orb, causing it to vomit a cascade of entrails and broken bone tissue shortly after a distant explosion was heard from inside of it. The men held onto the chassis of the plane's hull as the electric engines began to idle up, and throw the plane into a frontward slant. "They must be after the warp-core! We have to destroy it and ditch the plane!" Tommy said as another killer suit emerged from the translucent orb, seemingly having no difficulty walking up the slanting corridor.

Ryan sprays .45cal ammunition into the man's torso with his Thompson submachinegun until the killer suit falls backwards into the orb and causes an entry conflict in the slipstream. The orb continued to sputter mists of dark-red blood and entrails as Ryan explained his counter-plan. "We need the plane for transportation, we can't ditch it. I say we disconnect the warp-core upon activation, shove it into that slipstream and rupture it to close the portal, and destroy whatever's on the other side with the following nuclear explosion!" He finished as the others patted his back and nodded to each other in agreement. Tommy pulls a wrench from his backpack and advances towards the front of the plane hiding himself under one of the tables at the comm. Center as Ryan inched around the freezing orb with his bazooka, making his way to the activation panel on the side of the cockpit. Once Ryan gets through the infested bomb bay, he draws back in surprise at the bodies of the pilot and co-pilot. Two clusters of entrails clinging to two 150lb broken bone frames. By now the plane had climbed back to its 10,000ft altitude and continuously circled the unidentified landmass.

Ryan set the warp-core for a 3minute activation delay and started back around the freezing incandescent orb of now colorless liquid material. When he got to the other side, he was startled when an array of brain-tissue and skull fragments lurched out of the orb and bombarded his backside. Suddenly, as Tommy started back towards the warp-core with his pipe wrench, a decapitated killer suit dragged its body out of the translucent oversized water droplet and grabbed his rear collar. "Son of a bitch get it off me god dammit!" He yelled grabbing the killer suit's arm and lurching it forward, throwing the torso over his head and then spraying twenty rounds into it with his .30cal BAR 1918.

When the killer suit was reduced to a quivering pile of blood and snot, Tommy nervously began unscrewing the bolts on the top and bottom of the warp-core as the two waist-gunners lay on ether side of him with their .30cal M1919A6 light machineguns. By the time the last bolt was drawn from the rig, the timer was on the last 30seconds. Tommy and Ryan dragged the warp core up to the face of the orb and placed a boot on the center of its mass; using the chassis of the plane to brace themselves as they prepared to shove the device into the slipstream. When the timer hit 0, the crew felt themselves being dematerialized as the core prepared for its jump through sub-space.

Ryan and Tommy counted to three then shoved the core into the orb and backed up with the rest of the crew, towards the tail gun. Ryan fired a 3.5lb M7A1 shaped charge into the faint object at the center of the translucent orb, being flung backwards as a shockwave passed through the bomber, causing the air to ripple as the orb collapsed in on itself and the cables from the warp-core were thrown haphazardly out of the matrix. When the air became tranquil, the crewmembers cringed realizing the eerie silence. "Hey guys?" One of the waist-gunners asked as the ball-turret hatch swung open revealing a yawning Pvt. "Hey guys the engines stopped and I heard a bunch of explosions, what's goin on?" Nooney, the ball-turret gunner asked widening his eyes and turning to look at the decapitated pilots. "What'd you guys do with the warp-core? Knackamo goanna be pissed." He said as Ryan ran up and grabbed the copilot controls commenting, "Some killer suits from Bison Corp. set-up some kind of portal in the bomb-bay and tried to hi-jack the plane. They were after the warp-core."

Ryan said pausing as a large fleet of planes gathered in the distance. "Oh great, it looks like Bison sent some fighters after us too!" He finally said as Tommy and the two waist-gunners gathered in the cockpit to take a look. "Ryan? Do planes have teeth, snake-like torsos and leathery wings that flap?" Nooney asked peering through a pair of binoculars. Tommy yanked the device from the ball-turret gunner's hand, breaking it at the center and looking through a single scope 'monocular.' "Ryan? Nooney's right, I really don't think Bison would send a fleet a 'bird-lizards' after a Phoenix-class B-17 with pivoting engines.

"Well whatever they are, we wont be in the air long enough to fire the first shot anyway." Moody, one of the waist-gunners, commented as tangled rivers and patches of deciduous forest became vividly visible from the broken cockpit windows. "Hey there's a village just 500yrds ahead, we can land there, back the plane into the forest and hide it there until we can get it running again." Tommy said as Ryan arched the plane in that direction and pulled the landing-gear lever.

"Oh shit, hold onto somethin the gears aint slingin!" Ryan said in a sharp voice as the crew stooped down on the platform in the bomb bay and manually began cranking the landing gears down. "Wait-wait, put-em-up! Put-em-up we're droppin too fast not to cripple em on impact!" Ryan said as the others cranked them up and clung to the chassis of the bomber. The place jolted and jerked left to right as Ryan dipped the nose 100yrds before the entrance to the village. The tan-colored B17 slid into the unfertile soil, raising a cloud of dust as it continued forward, slicing through thick tree-trunks with its Woven-Venlar armored wings and bringing them down on ether side of its fuselage.

Ryan abandoned his seat in the cockpit and clung to the chassis as people outside scattered in hope of evading the giant metal beast as it demolished huts and compressed stables. The B17 ended about 50yards into the village in a smoking hap hazardous position between two slopes that kept the area hidden from Shao Kahn's forces. Inside, Ryan crawled out from under one of the comm.-link tables and drew up his M9A1 bazooka calling out the names of his crew with an exasperated voice tone.

"Sgt. Moody? Pvt. Nooney? Pvt. Tommy? Cpl. Hicks? Sound off!" _"My balls hurt…" _Hicks, the other waist-gunner, commented rolling across the corridor and grabbing his shotgun. "Moody here… Nooney's hangin onto one of the engines on the left wing, I think he's out…" -"Tommy here. -Hey! I sat on my friggin Chinese food, damn!" The tail-gunner said as Ryan rolled out one of the waist-gunner port windows and tended to Nooney. "How did his shoelace get caught, in the propeller?"

Ryan laughed untangling the Pvt.'s bootlaces from the giant angular blades. He paused after finishing the task, and unmindfully letting Nooney backslide off the wing of the plane onto the unearthed soil, panning at the clusters of people gathered around the crash-site. When Tommy and Moody exit with their weapons strapped to their backs, they gasp with slight enthusiasm at the tangled maze of fallen trees and unearthed soil left behind from the 150yrd slide. Hicks rolls out of one of the cockpit windows with his 12gage Remington 870 assault shotgun, then accidentally falls into a horse's water tray.

Suddenly, before Ryan could say anything regarding an explanation for the intrusion, a flame-jet of napalm spills over a row of houses to the left of the plane followed by a reptilian bird, which landed in the town square and scooped up a group of twelve children in its jaws, starting to fly away. The Ryan draws up his bazooka and puts a hole in the creature's head when the shaped charge impacts between the dragon's eyes. The creature staggered in circles before letting out jittery wails and then going into spasms and dying. Moody and Hicks set up their .30cal M1919A6 light machineguns on a fallen log and open fire on additional orbiting dragons; spilling intestines and sending arrays of brain-tissue and person-sized fragments of skull tissue raining down on the village as civilians scattered for cover. Nooney re-enters the B17 and mans the dossal turret, effectively shattering the frames of the opposing reptilians and sending them spiraling into the slopes that surrounded the village.

As Hicks loaded another chain of belted-ammunition into his .30cal M1919A6, he noticed a rumbling sound coming from over the slope north of the village. Suddenly a black sheet of masked soldiers spilled over the hill flinging balls of cohesive plasma masses into huts and fleeing civilians, sparking additional fires and adding to the confusion. "Everybody retreat to the tan metal bird if you want to live!" Nooney said over a load-speaker, sliding down out of the dossal turret and turning the quad 20mm ZPU 23-4 nose-mounted A.A gun on the charging soldiers in the distance. Hicks and Moody searched the huts for children and brought them back to the blockade, as Ryan fired at the few dragons left over from the slaughtered fleet of twenty. Tommy staked out in the attic of a house and sprayed the northern scenery with his .30cal BAR 1918. Shao Kahn's soldiers charged in unprepared for the arrays of .30cal and 20mm ammunition that mowed them down row-by-row, beheading and decapitating of torsos and maiming of limbs.

The immense exchange of bullets and plasma-masses between both sides kicked up a cloud of dust and filled the air with the scent of death. After about twenty minutes of fighting, a bellowing voice in the distance called out the words, "RETREAT!" And the soldiers began pulling back into the tree line northwest of the village, still flinging plasma masses at the now polka-dotted tan B-17 as the nose-mounted quad 20mm autocannon continued to rapidly decapitate them. After no more 'moving' soldiers were visible in the distance, Hicks and Moody fired the last 50rounds of their .30cal M1919A6 light machineguns into the corpse-saturated green scenery then changed out their 150round box-cartridges for a security sweep of the village.

Nooney had stopped firing the quad 20mm cannon on the nose of the bomber by then, Ryan closed his eyes and listened to the familiar sound of a bellowing machinegun in the distance. "Hey Hicks?" Ryan asked as the villagers quietly came out of hiding with jaws dropped as they panned around at the dead enemy soldiers. "Yeah?" "What kind of machinegun is that? The one sounding off to the northwest." Ryan asked as Hicks listened attentively and then answered, "I think… It's a German MG-42 light machinegun. One of the Striders on board Jo's plane included one in his weapons inventory. I guess he set an ambush or somethin." Hicks finished as him and Moody started cautiously in that direction.

About 400yards northwest of the village, Thomson IV sprints through a lush forest spinning around to recklessly spray a horseman with his MG-42 and then, hiding behind a tree and drawing up his desert-camouflaged Panzerschrek. Thomson fired a 7.25lb shaped charge into the broadside of a passing horse, sending the rider and the animal itself tumbling forward and hitting a tree nearby. The commando reached for another 7.25lb rocket from his backpack and slid it into the exhaust port of his anti-tank weapon, then leaned around the tree and fired another rocket into a group of masked soldiers about 100yards away in the forest clearing. The corpses back flipped in random directions landing on other soldiers or splattering on trees.

Thomson reloaded his Panzerschrek, strapped it to his back and then kept low as he started towards the horseman that he'd disabled earlier. When he unmasked the rider, he found that it was actually a beautiful woman with a soft skin-tone, petite figure, and shapeful legs. She was dressed in a black leather combat outfit, with belted sleeves, cut at the shoulders, and armed with dual 3ft dagger-like weapons. "Great, I hit a girl on a horse who probably didn't even know I was there…" Thomson said turning and then diving behind the dead horse and setting up his MG-42 to fire at a twinning incandescent orb of magenta-colored light.

"What the hell is that?" Thomson said thinking out loud as the woman next to him regained consciousness and simply stared at the commando. "Hi, I'm Thomson IV, I accidentally kinda purposely 'not knowing you were a woman' shot you off of your horse and killed 'it.'" The commando replied as the woman murmured, "you're the one who ambushed us on our retreat…" "Yeah but only after that big dude with the skull-partial mask fired that green bolt at me while I was takin a piss." The commando replied taking aim at the growing translucent orb 50yrds in front of them. "You're not with the resistance?" The woman asked loosening the grip on her dagger.

"Resistance? What the hell are ya talkin about? I was attacked by a bunch of dragons, kicked out of my plane, had ta waste a bunch of 4,000lb cluster bombs on nothin, blow up the plane, landed in the middle of the ocean, swam here, killed a pig or two, took a piss; next thing I know I'm starin down at my florescent-green hands n' dick, I turn around, find king Shove'n Stuff shootin bolts out of his hands then I shot at him, 'allot' and decided to retreat with a reciting fire." The commando finished as a killer suit armed with a Chinese M1L1 Tripple-Pulse assaultrifle (Carbine Ver of the Gatlingun) emerged from the magenta-colored portal with six others identically armed and at his disposal.

"Eliminate him." The group rambled as Thomson abandoned his position, grabbing the woman and pulling her behind a tree. The commando then leaned out and fired a long jittery burst of his MG-42 into the killer suits, ripping three of them in half with the machinegun's 1800rounds per minute rate of fire. He then hid behind the tree to change out the ammunition drum as the female assassin engaged two killer suits that charged up to the tree; cutting the head off a grunt and then an arm off the leader. Thomson joined in decapitating one of the men with his Panzerschrek from 3ft away, sending the bio-weapon's crumpled skeleton and detached organs splattering on a tree 20ft away. Suddenly, as the commando reloaded his Panzerschrek, another killer suit emerged from the now liquid-like translucent orb and opened fire with his M1L1 carbine, catching Thomson off guard.

The female assassin, jumped in front of Thomson, her daggers folding out into what appeared to be a large pair of razor-sharp fans. When Thomson saw that the array of bullets were punching holes in the iron shield, ravaging the woman's torso, he kicked her out of the way, spraying a stream of bullets across the necks of the killer suits, beheading them in less than five seconds. Then, pulling out a German stielhandgranate, (stick-grenade) the commando chucks it into the portal, being flung backwards by a shockwave that caused the air to ripple around the translucent orb as it collapsed in on itself then expanded in the form of a blazing inferno explosion. Thomson strapped his MG-42 to his back, scooping the wounded woman and her weapons into his arms and darting in the opposite direction of the explosion.

When the red-orange flames ceased to follow him anymore, he turned to find that the section of the forest, about 100square yards, was reduced to a field of dead trees, and ground-fires. "Bison Corp; they must have reengineered the warp-core, and now they're coming after me and my crew. God, I gota open a sacrificial portal and warp my Tiger tank up in here, especially if I'm goanna be outnumbered like this." He said starting towards the village in the distance, noticing the tan, battle-scared B17 at the southern entrance even from afar. As he walked on, keeping to the tree line to avoid being spotted by a dragon or any other flying object that may exist in that world, the woman woke up; she went into spasms and started to cry but stopped herself. "Okay, time to patch you up." The commando said as he undid her leather top. Suddenly, a gunshot was heard from the foliage far to the left of him, the woman letting out an agonizing holler as her abdomen ripped open, and the force of her screaming spewed her intestines out of the slit.

Thomson drew up his MG-42 and sprayed the foliage with armor piercing 7.92mm ammunition until a killer suit armed with an M87R 12.7mm (.50cal) sniper rifle tumbled out of a bush with a missing arm n' bust, and head. (Bust was diagonally cut in two) "Tell me your name lady, keep talkin, and don't fall asleep no matter what." Thomson said pulling out his medical kit and starting to dig the 5.56mm A.P bullets out of her torso with a pair of tweezers. _"M- Ma, my name is, s, s, s, Princess Kitana. I'm the -daughter of Emperor Shao Kahn, -and Ahhhh!" _Kitana yelled as Thomson was forced to cut the bullets out of her body, due to the fact that they fused themselves to her organs.

"Okay, Kitana, uh, what was your mission today? Tell me about that, the pain'll all be over soon." The commando said as Kitana stared at the pile of bloodstained bullets on the dirt next to a strand of her intestines. "There last one!" He said drawing up a needle syringe and sticking her neck with it. After ten seconds, Kitana began to breathe normally, and found that she didn't feel the pain of twenty bullet wounds anymore. She silently watched as the commando cleaned her soiled intestines with Neosporin and Hydrogen Peroxide.

"You have soft hands…" She said as the commando looked up and smiled in a sense. "Yeah, when you go to hell, you're actually boiling in hot oil or tar, those that come back get really soft skin and slack muscles, pail skin and translucent teeth and fingernails." He said as Kitana noticed where his eyes were. (Back of the eye sockets) "You're from the underworld?" She asked as Thomson stitched her abdomen closed. "Yeah, I merged my spirit with a mischievous demon's 'Loki' and thereby was enabled the ability to see, and move about Hell until I found a way to respawn elsewhere."

The commando said as the sputtering of a pair of machineguns was heard further in the direction of the sniper. Kitana jumped up, recoiling from all sides asking, "there are more of them right?" "Yeah, but those aren't their machineguns, those sound like .30cal M1919A6 light machineguns, and I think I hear a .30cal Browning automatic rifle in the background somewhere…" The commando said stitching the bullet holes in the woman's torso. "Those sound like the weapons that horded off my father's army and forced us into a retreat, it was before you ambushed us." Kitana said as Thomson made an overlooked discovery while staring into the distance at the tan Phoenix-class B17.

There were at least twenty magenta-colored translucent orbs scattered in strategic areas of the forest below them. "Okay, I'm goanna need your help and possibly your father's after I'm done here. We got a serious problem that concerns the well-being of this entire planet." Thomson said as Kitana sat up a little and asked, "what do you mean?" "You see those portals down there? Those are all the spawn points Bison Corp. has control of. They can send in killer suits and who knows what the hell else and overtake this place within less than a day." Thomson finished as Kitana stared blankly at the spawn points and was hit in the shoulder by a .50cal 12.7mm bullet. Thomson pulled her back crouching in the tree line and looking around for the shooter.

Thomson is startled as several bullets impact on the ground in front of him; the commando picking up and stowing his medical kit in his backpack. He guided Kitana further into the forest and crouched next to her to mount a scope on his MG-42. "Hey, you ever fire a gun before?" Thomson asked as Kitana shook her head and crouched next to him asking, "why do you ask?" "I want you to get that sniper rifle off that dead suit over there and bring it here so I can teach you how to use it." Thomson replied struggling with a sandy groove on the bottom of his scope.

Kitana crept over to the decapitated corpse and drew up the rifle by its barrel, running towards Thomson as an array of inaccurately fired bullets rustled the tree leaves above her. Thomson slips the scope onto his MG-42 then tends to Kitana, pulling the clip out of the rifle. "This is a 12.7mm .50cal A.P bullet, what ripped your stomach open earlier and what will take your head off from 6kilomiters away if you're not careful." The commando said slipping the bullet into the magazine and the magazine into the feed-port on the rifle. Thomson placed the rifle in her hands and then adjusted the stock to push against her right shoulder. "Can you see fairly far with the scope?" He asked as Kitana nodded with amazement. "Make sure you always have the stock pushing firmly into your shoulder, if you choose not to, the recoil from the blast will ether dislocate or break your arm. Keep a wide stance so you can fall back on your back leg when the recoil throws you off balance." Thomson said as he noticed how quickly the woman caught on.

"Find one of the killer suits in the distance and put the center of that cross hair right under his genital area…" The commando said as Kitana panned slowly to the right, finding a killer suit armed with a Scoped SG-550. "Always wait until you exhale before firing unless you 'really' have to fire." Thomson added as Kitana took the shot curling up in a ball clenching her arm and then working it back into the socket. "I'm guessing that's happed before, try using your left arm for the brace of recoil." The commando said as Kitana raised the rifle again, taking aim, exhaling and firing, smiling as she took a killer suit's arm off. "See that bolt on the right side of the rifle, lift, pull back, then forward and down again." Thomson added as Kitana pulled the bolt and finished off the killer suit with a shot to his upper torso. "Good, use that rifle wisely, you only have twelve rounds for it." The commando said setting up his MG-42 on a rock next to the tree he treated Kitana by and taking aim at the killer suits rummaging the forest below.

Meanwhile, about 600yrds northeast of Thomson's position, Emperor Shao Kahn and the remainder of his army, (twelve people) cautiously crept through a tranquil river scanning their surroundings for killer suits that ambushed them just after Thomson collapsed the spawn point with a stick grenade. A stray bullet shattered Shao Kahn's mask while he and his men were trying to take the village earlier; he now wore it in pieces wrapped around his waist in a sac. In a psychological way, it was a symbol of his defeat, a failure that had not once fallen upon him in over 12,000years.

As the masked army almost made it to the other side of the river, a laser-guided rocket impacted in the middle of the group sending two men into the air with no legs and reddening the water when they came down with multiple splashes. Shao Kahn gathered a mass of energy in his left hand and flung it at what he thought to be a person, but turned out to be an elusion; especially after six more of his men went down with bullet wounds to their torsos. Shao Kahn was suddenly startled for the first time in his life by the loud sputtering of a .30cal M1919A6 light machinegun, taking left and right noticing the huge muzzle flash jutting out of a thick bush and then the pile of decapitated killer suits tumbling into the river from the opposite side.

After the sputtering died down, a voice whispered sharply, _"hey you! Get over here in the bush before any more see you."_ When Shao Kahn entered he found two radically dressed militants lying in prone positions, aiming their .30cal light machineguns across the river. Moody grabbed the Emperor's collar and yanked him into a prone position as a steady growling sound was heard from down the river. _"Stay down and don't make any noise, I think I smell gas and hear an engine…" _Moody whispered sharply as Hicks covered the barrels of the machineguns with leaves and unearthed grass. Suddenly a PT-76 light tank rolls into view with its slanted-armor turret scanning left to right for unknown targets. "Hey, aren't those used by the Northern Vietnamese? Who are allied with Knackamichie Corp?" Hicks asked starting to get up but then spotting a killer suit armed with a later, scoped laser-guided version of the M-66 four-barreled rocket-launcher, staked out in a tree taking aim at the tank.

The killer suit fired two guided rockets converting the tank to a twisted heap of oxidized steel and sparking a fire next to Moody and Kahn as the ammunition in the depressed turret discharged in random directions. "Lets go, Hicks? Knock out that sentry!" Moody ordered as Hicks sprayed a mist of .30caliber armor-piercing shells into the killer suit, causing him to completely fall apart before his corpse hit the ground. The three ran deeper into the forest towards the palace as clatters of gunfire were heard closely behind them. "Let's get to that castle up ahead and stake out there until nightfall." Hicks said as Kahn added, "that's my palace, I have an army standing by to defend it."

"Good, I hope you can tell them ahead of time because these assholes are right up on us." Moody said spinning to fire a mist of .30cal shells into his pursuers and running on. "God, don't these damn killer suits get tiered of running?" Hicks commented as an MG-42 sounded off nearby, cutting off the pursuers once the three got passed it. "That must be our would-be P.O.W, hopefully he can buy us enough time to set-up." Hicks said as the three reached the gates of the castle, Kahn sprinting down the low-lit hall as Moody and Hicks set-up their .30cal light machineguns in dark corners on ether side of the corridor and opened fire on the incoming killer suits.


	5. MTWETFME

Chapter 4

'Making Tides With Enemies

To Fight More Enemies'

Now 100yards away, the fleeing couple, Thomson and Kitana, sprinted through the forest towards the village in the distance, keeping low to the ground to avoid detection or mortal injuries from the array of bullets that darted passed their heads from random directions. "We have to find my sister, she was cut-off from our force during the first retreat!" Kitana said over the clatters of gunfire as the two stopped in a trench and returned fire on their pursuers; sending the dense group staggering forward or decapitating them at the knees. "Okay, how far did she get before being cut-off?" The commando asked changing out the ammunition drum on his MG-42. "Further east of where we ambushed you…" Kitana replied covering her head as particles from an explosion rained down on the two. Thomson picked up the inhuman banshee-wails and growling of a tracked vehicle, most likely a tank.

The commando stayed silent for a moment trying to recognize the sharp, shogun-like, echo of its large caliber weapon. "I think they warped in some Patton tanks, ether that or PT-76 light tanks, I can't make out the sound very clearly from so far away." The commando finally said peeking over the trench then firing a burst at a slowly advancing killer suit. "What's a Patton tank?" Kitana asked as she fell to a prone position and fired her M87R at a different type of killer suit, dressed like a special forces or CIA operative. The man staggered back from the blow but didn't fall. As he drew up his ES-C90 submachinegun, Kitana cocked and fired the .50cal rifle three more times, failing to drop the killer suit even with a face shot. Thomson sprayed a constant stream of fire into the man's head and upper bust causing him to spasm, but still fire accurate rounds into the commando's torso. After Kitana reloaded her M87R, she fired another shot into the middle of the killer suit's forehead, killing him on the spot.

"God damn! Finally!" She said as Thomson changed out the barrel on his MG-42 with a frustrated nod. "That does it, next one of those I see, he's getting a happy greeting from my Panzerschrek. Nothing has survived a single blow from it so far, even when I shoot it next to them; the fall kills em." The commando said as Kitana darted over to the fallen corpse and grabbed his weapon and ammunition. "Does this have much recoil?" Kitana asked automatically applying what the commando taught her about the M87R to her new weapon. "Nah, none, it's a 5.7x28mm, transparent-clip latches onto the top of the chassis, very accurate with high rate of fire and exceptional pushing power." The commando said as the two moved further east.

Somewhere 200yards from the 'red' river, Kitana's masked twin sister Milleena stooped down over the corpse of a killer suit trying to figure out why it took so long to defeat. She gently drew up his Scoped SG-550 and tinkered with the device canting her head left and right, trying to look at it from different angles to better gain an understanding of its architecture. She noticed the thin trigger at the top of the handle slowly pushing the small lever with her index finger and jumping back as a lightning-fast reflex when the discharged weapon cart-wheeled out of her hands from recoil.

Milleena grunted at the weapon picking it up, this time by the handle and pointing it at a tree, then pulling the trigger. Underneath the mask, Milleena smiled at the decimated section of the tree, walking up to it and estimating the dimensions of the crevice created by the rifle's six round burst. "Three feet tall, six inches deep… Now I can-," Milleena paused peering into the 5x magnification scope, spotting a killer suit crouching out in the open of a break in the forest, armed with an M1L1 carbine. Using common sense she placed the crosshair on the man's gonads and fired a three-round burst laughing mischievously as blood gushed from the killer-suit's crotch and he fell forward in spasms; dieing seconds later. "With this I can for-see targets before Kitana and score more kills; then father will love me more than her! I'll be his favorite, he'll tell me how proud he is to have me as his daughter and embrace me…" Milleena said as she heard rustling in the bushes behind her.

Suddenly she's met by Pvt. Ryan as he dives into her torso sending her plummeting to the ground as a mist of gunpowder irritates her skin. A small explosion about 20yards behind Ryan, and the inhuman crescendo of banshee-wails and grinding metal just above Milleena's head followed this. When she looked up, from her laying position, she lays eyes on the M4A83 Patton tank charging forward with a killer suit manning the top-mounted .50cal-browning machinegun. Ryan pulled Milleena to her feet firing his M9A1 bazooka into the killer suit on the .50cal before turning to run with his new partner. "What the hell is that thing, and who the hell are you?" Milleena hissed as Ryan reloaded his M9A1 and fired another 3.5lb shaped charge into one of the tank's tracks. The two stopped when a metallic crash was heard from the Patton's direction. When Ryan turned to look, he found that the charge had blown the left track grouping off the network of rubber boogie wheels.

Ryan fell to a prone position as the tank fired a burst from its maingun, narrowly missing Milleena's head as she rolled to the side and fired her SG-550 at the pivoting turret. When the clip depleted she too fell to a prone position as Ryan fired his M9A1 at the tank's turret, angling the shaped charge into the open hatch and hitting the main-gunner. As he reached for another M7A1 rocket from his M.R.S, he answered, "that there is a Bison Corp. signatured M4A83 Patton tank. A giant swiveling cannon on tracks with the ability to roll over quicksand due to the sq. inches of ground coverage provided by the wide wheels. Your machinegun cannot penetrate its armor, that is why I am goanna get you a bazooka when we're done here, and maybe take you to dinner." Ryan smiled hitting on the rejected princes. For a couple seconds Milleena blushed, then realized her horrible secret and put the warm feeling to the back of her mind. Ryan fired another 3.5lb shaped charge into the bulbous turret converting the Patton tank into a tumbling paperweight, as the discharging ammunition fired hundreds of feet into the air.

"Common let's go before more of those corporate killers show up." Ryan said starting back towards the camp. "Here, let me teach you how to reload that rifle, it's easy." Ryan said taking her soft hand and folding it around the clip and release lever, then slowly pulling it out. He then placed a fresh mag in her hand and slipped it into the feed port. For about a minute, the two looked into one another's eyes with affection, then started towards the village silently holding hands and panning to look at one another with loving eyes. Though never getting to know each other, especially since ether one said anything, that first one-minute stare exchanged two life stories and bonded two lonely and utterly battered souls in love.

Back at the base or crash site, Nooney and Tommy, had just finished reconnaissance and secured the village of Zansatsu. The two men were exhausted from the day's hard work, the villagers out of great appreciation gave them food and even the option of taking some of their women. By nightfall, Ryan had returned with Mileena leaning her weight on his shoulders from the hard hike into the safety zone. "Hey Ryan, who's the broad?" Tommy called raising a 24ounce of whisky over his head and waving it off the nose of the B17. "Oh, this is Mileena! We met about 200meters from the river four hours ago, I think I love her!" Ryan said as Mileena spotted a warlord that she and Kitana had been tracking down for several years, sitting amongst a group of children.

She reached for her scoped assault rifle but in the middle of drawing it up; she shrugged and let it fall to her side. _"Even if I kill Jeice, my father will still look down on me like always. Plus I'd hate to loose Ryan's trust, though how do I know he loves 'me?' I haven't shown him my face yet…" _The assassin thought feeling the urge to cry but holding it in like always. _"Father always told me that crying was for weak, pathetic mortals, am I weak? Am I pathetic?" _She thought as she entered the battered B17 with Ryan and sat in the cockpit next to him.

"_I'll just wait until he asks me about it, then play hard-to-get and reveal myself. Hopefully… -he'll still love me…" _Mileena thought, trying to manage her internal conflicts. Back at Emperor Shao Kahn's palace, Hicks and Moody staked out in the main tower using the personal chambers of a slave woman as their post and ammunition stockpile. The stone room they were located in consisted of a ruddy-looking bed and straw mattress, a broken wooden chair in the corner right of the door, torches that lined the walls providing dim lighting, and a woven basket filled with vulgar, clothing that indicated the owner was probably a sex-slave.

"Awe man, I could sure use some hot chow." Moody grumbled firing a burst of his .30cal lightmachinegun at something moving in the tree-line 40ft below. Suddenly Kitana and her Hellion commando colleague came out of the darkness into the open. "Wow, what gives with that commando's face?" Hicks commented, as Moody replied, "shut-up that's our boy. The P.O.W that cut off those killer suits from the castle and drew them deep into the forest." _"Thomson IV of Behemoth-class B-17 Aurora!" _The pail scar-faced commando yelled from below, waving his Iron Cross' in the air to justify his identity. Moody waited for a moment before rolling his eyes and yelling, "well don't just stand there you flee-bitten horney apes, get up and open the gates before those killer suits pick em off!"

The guards below began drawing the gates open, allowing the princess and the Hellion commando to enter, then closing them quickly and manning their posts. "Hey McLarin, what happened to the rest of the crew and Major?" Moody called as Thomson replied while starting into the lower hall, _"Jo jumped out before we hit inland and Andy's probably dead or stuck in a nearby tree. One of the Bison Corp. scientists, 'Millennia,' landed somewhere on the beach after I equipped her with my parachute, she should be in decant hands hopefully!"_ The commando finished as Hicks put his head over the edge of the balcony and called out, "hey dude, bring some food up to the 10th floor, and get chicken if you can!" _"Alright…" _A faint voice echoed from below.

In the main hall, Thomson tiredly dragged the back of his Panzerschrek on the brick floor, caring less about chipping the paint and more about finding a place to sleep. "Tiered?" Kitana asked as they rounded the corner and started up the twining network of stairs. "Damn strait, I think its that fall from the plane this morning, it took 'allot' outta me; then runnin from those android-like killer suits for several hours didn't help ether, I was surprised we were even able to escape that M4A83 Patton tank back at the trench…" The commando mumbled starting to use his anti-tank rifle for a crutch. "Hey thanks for trying ta jump in front of me back at the spawn point were we first met, I'm sorry about your fans, I promise I'll make you new ones, but 100times as strong and twice as light."

Thomson said sitting down to rest on one of the steps. "You're a black smith?" Kitana asked intrigued by the statement. "Well, kinda, I had to mold my Panzerschrek during training at the Aquatica facility back on Earth, and then assemble the peaces and paint it." Thomson replied as Kitana fell silent and then said, "Thank you for saving my life, and giving hope when I was scared the most…" The commando drew back in surprise at the expression on Kitana's face, nearly letting go of his weapons and murmuring, _"oh my fuck, its like one a those sad teen-movies where the hot-chicks looks on a total looser with affection and the looser faints." _

"You can sleep in my room if you want, I'll have the servants bring food for you in the morning." The princess smiled as Thomson forced himself up and continued to the upper floors. When they got to the upper floors, Kitana guided him to the Emperor's chamber to resolve the conflict between the two. "Where are we going and why is security becoming more dense?" Thomson asked as Kitana replied, "you need to resolve your misunderstanding with my father if you want his help."

"Can't we do that in the morning? I mean when I walk into that door, he's goanna argue with me, insult me, he's goanna threaten me, he's goanna huff n' puff and blow my ass down, I'm goanna fire back at him, and he's goanna fire at me, then it'll go from lightning bolts and depleted uranium bullets to cohesive plasma masses and 7lb nitrous-napalm-magnesium-C4 shaped charges, and then we're goanna blow the castle up trying to invoke pain on one another, me for fun and Kahn for his ego…

Okay I'll see him tonight…" The commando agreed as Kitana asked, "were you always this pessimistic?" "Yeah, ever since I learned to say the word 'fuck,' which I think was when I was about 2yrs old; my dad use to use the word 'fuck' when he'd argue with my mom, so I just woke up one Saturday and decided, 'fuck' would be my new slogan, but later decided that 'Sieg Heil' was cooler because it's German, and uh. Yeah, I'm pessimistic as hell…"

The commando finished entering Shao Kahn's chambers. _"Bow or 'take a knee.'" _Kitana whispered as the commando bowed before the Emperor. "Have you come to beg for your life Rebel scum?" Kahn said getting up from his gothic throne. "Not before I shove my Panzerschrek up your candy-scented ass, twist it around and blow your gonads out your zipper…" Thomson said standing up and tightly gripping his anti tank rifle in his big hands. "Is that a threat?" Kahn asked starting forward in a hostile manner as Kitana interrupted, "father he's not here to fight you though, you've readily agonized him; he's here to resolve the conflict between you two, 'peacefully'" Kitana empathized as Thomson nodded and fell to a crouched position. "You expect me, to ally with this rebel pig?"

Kahn asked in a sharp tone as Thomson stood up and politely said, "I'm not a pig, and I'm not a 'Rebel,' I'm a Hellion commando strait from the deepest part of the underworld. Anymore of you're false accusations and I'll drop your arrogant ass right on the spot with my bare hands." Thomson finished as Kitana grew uneasy, mumbling, _"why didn't I let him see father tomorrow morning? Why didn't I see this coming?" _"You think a puny mortal like yourself can defeat me? I am immortal! You'll kill yourself trying to get within five feet of me." Kahn said as Thomson dropped his weapons and walked towards the emperor with his fists curled and his stance wide. "Comon, old man, put your money where your mouth is, destroy me oh mighty Emperor of 'Unidentified-Landmass!'"

At that moment, Kahn came at Thomson lunging his arm out to choke the commando but instead being struck with repetitive unbearable blows to ether side of his head. Kitana gawked at Thomson in amazement as he successfully countered all of Kahn's moves, finally sending him back flipping into his gothic throne with a powerful sidekick. Kahn wearily sat up in his chair dizzy as hell and achy from head to toe. "That was just Tae Chuan Do and some Jujitsu-kickboxing techniques I learned in Kindergarden. Frankly I've fought bigger, better, angrier things than 'you' and don't have the playtime waste in trying to defeat you. I'll leave myself at your 'limited' disposal and argue with you no further…" The commando said picking up his weapons and starting out the chamber doors. "I did not dismiss you!" Kahn hissed as Thomson turned and replied, "you dismissed me the second your ass plummeted into that chair at 60miles an hour, and on the contrary, you're not immortal, you just have something us Quake III Arena fans call 'Regeneration…'" Thomson finished as Kitana nervously followed him out.

When they got to Kitana's new room, Thomson straddled into a dark corner and laid on the cold stone floor hugging his Panzerschrek to his chest and using his MRS/backpack as a tough pillow. "So what are you going to do tomorrow?" Kitana asked taking off her clothes and slipping into a pearl-colored gown decaled with woven patterns and some small diamonds. "Uh, I need to find a goat and use its blood to open a sacrificial portal to the vehicle hangar onboard my battleship in the oil canals deep into the underworld and see if I can fit my Tiger tank and some additional weapons through the slipstream; that should give us a fighting chance against Bison Corp's killer suits. Maybe your father knows someone who can open a portal big enough to fit the entire ship. -And don't worry, the worse is yet to come, you haven't even seen the nasty stuff yet… Stay away from the window, especially in the day… Those bastards can see and hit you from 6kilometers away…" The commando finished closing his ruby-red translucent eyes as Kitana rested her eyes on him, later falling asleep with a feeling of tranquility and unexplained warmth.

Back at the village of Zansatsu, now curled up in a ball of sorrow under one of the waist-mounted .50cal browning machineguns on the tan B17; Mileena's mask dampened with tears as her internal conflicts ate at her soul, rotting her to the bone, leaving stains that would never wash off, at least not until she had closure… The assassin got up from under the .50cal and quietly made her way to the front of the plane. She then climbed onto Ryan's lap as he slept in the pilot's seat and shook him awake. _"Hey, still can't sleep?" _he asked in a gentle voice as Mileena paused then answered, _"I want to show you my face, I want to know if you'll love me no mater what…." _Ryan suddenly jerked her mask off pausing not in disgust, but more like a scientist observing a fresh specimen. Mileena froze in a mixture of feelings. The top half of her face, from the nose up, looked exactly like Kitana. But just below her nose was a large reptilian mouth packed with razor sharp teeth.

After staring at her for a minute, Ryan smiled and leant forward, kissing the woman's deformed mouth then stroking her hair and whispering, _"That's what you were crying about, your face? Mileena when I looked into your eyes four hours ago, I saw exactly what I see in them now. An extraordinary, gifted, beautiful young woman, who dreams, and laughs and cries, just like everyone else does. Besides, we have ultra-violet body scanners that can fix your face in five minutes." _He finished as Mileena kissed him once more, wrapping her face in the mask as the two fell asleep in a spooning position just behind the pilot seats. In the main-tower at the palace, within the stone room of a still unknown slave woman, Hicks and Moody continued to scan the main-road and tree line for additional enemies. They had already killed thirty infiltrators within the past 45minutes and weren't about to fall asleep now.

"Man, look at all that hi-tech weapons detail scattered down there," Moody said wiping some fingerprints off the metallic silver barrel heatsink on his M1919A6. "Boy I can't wait to get my hands on those OICW's and that Winchester 12x76gage double barreled auto-shotgun." Hicks added as both men sprayed a mist of .30cal ammunition into another infiltrator coming down from the tree line to the left of the main road. When the agent was ripped in half and beheaded, the support gunners ceased fire and checked their box-cartridges for ammo. "How much ya waste?" Moody asked as Hicks counted his bullets by 10's and replied, "bout 57." "I capped-off 60. That means we wasted over 120rounds on that little rat-terd." Moody calculated closing the magazine cover on his lightmachinegun. "It's like they upgrade themselves hourly." Hicks said. "Yeah, I better get that radio workin, or we're in big trouble by noon tomorrow. Maybe I can coordinate fire support from the Prometheus" (B17) Moody said pulling out a soldering iron and then staring at the AC plug at the end of the cord.

"Uh, hum, -anybody got an outlet?" "The other Nooney kid, Tom, the nose-gunner, he had a lithium ion solar battery built into his utility pack, we find him we can get electricity." Hicks said firing a long burst from his .30cal into an ape-like creature with clawed hands, which attempted to climb over the palace walls. "Okay, well where's the other Nooney kid? He could have fallen out anywhere? We circled this landmass at least once before we crashed." Moody asked trying to pry the field radio open with a flat-head screwdriver. "Hey tomorrow morning lets see if we can get down to the main road on weapons detail and salvage some of that nice hardware?" Hicks asked adjusting his sitting position. "Good idea, we'll get our asses blown off but I'll bet there's a radio down there." Moody said managing to get the panel open on the field receiver unit. "A satellite radio maybe." Hicks added. "Then maybe we can listen in on their transmissions and see if we can get coordinates to a vehicle hangar or air base around here, we can coordinate an attack using their own tanks against them." Moody finished as the door behind the two men swung open.

Hicks shot backwards then fell on his face being smashed when his lightmachinegun tipped over on him. In the doorway stood a tiered-looking girl, with brown eyes, fair skin, long dark-brown hair that extended to her lower back, dressed in a red leather combat suit similar to Kitana's. "What are you doing here!" She hissed drawing up her Sais. "Shao Kahn said we could use this room for a guard post, since it overlooks the main road." Hicks replied still stunned and taken aback by her beauty. "Lady ya white wanna get down right avout now…" Moody said trying to strip a thick wire with his teeth. "Don't tell me what to do you pathetic mortal vermin!" The assassin snared as Hicks dove for her, pinning her to the floor as a guided rocket exploded just over the doorframe.

"Moody take-out that AGM!" He yelled as Moody grabbed both .30cal light machineguns and sprayed ammunition relentlessly into a cluster of agents gathered in the middle of the main road. Hicks helped the assassin to her feet and guided her under the window frame, manning his .30cal and helping to scatter the Bison corp. mercenaries clustered around an ominous stationary artillery cannon. Once the agents were ether decapitated stains of entrails in the tall grass lining the main road, or simply scattered corpses haphazardly mangled-about like rag-dolls, Hicks turned to nervously apologize to the assassin. "I uh, I'm sorry for the dive, -thingy, I didn't want you ta get hurt or in this case die." Hicks said as Moody's head retracted from the window, being narrowly missed by a .50cal armor piercing shell.

"It's fine, my name is Chimera, I didn't realize you two were the pair of men who escorted Shao Kahn to safety earlier today, even against ridiculous odds. You were hiding in the dark so I retrieved poor descriptions of you." She said as Hicks changed out the box cartridge on his .30cal M1919A6. "I'm Cpl. Hicks, this is Sgt. Moody. We crashed here about six hours ago while attempting to rescue another one of our allied bombers. Our team is scattered all over the place and no one seems to have a working radio to coordinate a rendezvous point. The situation is bitterly complicated, uh-, the first team, consisting of five members, were testing out a device designed by the Knackamichie corporation, which allows travel through subspace to reach other realms. Something went wrong with the device and it stranded them here. We were dispatched an hour later to search for the missing plane and were attacked, or in this case boarded by genetically engineered assassins from the Bison Corporation." Hicks said as Moody took over the briefing.

"The assassins were using a similar device, but much more stable, much more advanced than ours. They were able to open a portal in the middle of our bomb bay and sustain a stable slipstream for over ten minutes. I estimate, the previous team went down because the corporation attempted and succeeded in stealing the warp core onboard and modifying it to utilize more uses. Anyway, we disconnected our warp core, chucked it into their portal, and had Pvt. Ryan, our anti-tank unit; shoot it with his M9A1 on the way in. after the enemy portal collapsed, we lost all engines and glided up the coast, crash-landing on the village of Zansatsu. Before we could even analyze our environment, at least two companies of masked horseback riders flooded the village, throwing cohesive plasma masses into the huts and at our plane." Moody said as Hicks sprayed ammunition into targets below the window. Clanging swords could be heard from below, mixed in with screams and breaking bodies.

"Moody, take over for me, I gotta dig the dirt outta ma heat-sinks; ma .30cal keeps jamming up!" Hicks said taking over the briefing as Moody fired short controlled bursts of ammunition into the tree line bordering the main road. "Anyway, me and Moody set up our machineguns in the middle of the road just outside the town square and gunned em down. Not to mention Pvt. Nooney who aided us with the quad 20mm A.A nose gun on the B-17. Pvt. Ryan kept the hordes of dragons off us with his Bazooka, and Tommy made sure all women and children got to the trench or 'drag mark' behind the plane. After we killed seven companies, they fell into retreat and headed northeast. I heard an MG-42 discharging in the tree line to the northwest about a minute later and went to go check it out with Sgt. Moody. We didn't find anything, just allot of enemy corpses.

We headed east until we hit the river, and ran into more killer suits; they forced us to begin a retreat towards this palace, at the time we were pinned down behind a couple rabbit-sized rocks and a thick bush. We staked out for 15minutes, killing anyone who crossed the river with a gun in their hand and a tuxedo, then spotted Kahn and about six guys with him. We stayed quiet and scanned the tree line behind him; we figured since everyone was gasping for air, they must have run into agents too. Seconds later, I spotted something crouched in a tall tree, then next thing I know it, a laser guided rocket, like the one that almost killed you earlier, plunged into the center of the group and killed three guys. The others were killed by machinegun fire. Me and Moody took out the AGM gunner in the tree, then we pulled Kahn into hiding and started our constant retreat to the palace." Hicks finished digging the dirt clods out of the holes in the .30cal's barrel heatsink with Moody's flat-head screwdriver.

"The demons have breached the main gates!" Someone said as mercenaries pored into the courtyard with M1L1 carbines. Kahn's guards staggered backwards in bloody heaps all in synchronization as the agents opened fire. Hicks and Moody fired wildly into the intruding company, feeding the chains of ammunition into their M1919A6 lightmachineguns without use of the cartridges. On the floor above them, Thomson is scared awake by a stray laser-guided rocket, which blows out a section of the window frame. "Kitana wake em and shake em, we're under attack!" The commando said strapping on his MRS and setting up his MG-42 on the window frame as Kitana gathered her weapons. After the princess planted the legs of her M87R .50cal sniper rifle on the windowsill, both persons opened fire kicking up white smoke and chunks of dislodged stone. Suddenly as the MG-42 bellowed over the other machineguns, a Patton tank came into view, straying onto the main-road and firing a burst of its maingun into the window below Kitana's room.

One floor down, Hicks crawled around on the floor covered in blood and smoking shrapnel wounds, suffering from shellshock as Moody yelled, "Thomson, is that you? Get that bazooka of yours and take out that damn Patton!" _"Roger that shit!" _The Sgt. heard faintly over the sound of his blaring .30cal; suddenly, a shaped charge angles 60degreese out of the window above him, converting the Patton tank into a twisted ruin when the 88mm rocket impacted on the top of the turret. As the ammunition discharged into the star-lit atomic-purple sky, Hicks came out of shellshock and latched a chain-belt of ammunition into the side of his .30cal light machinegun, resuming his assault on the opposing mercenaries.

Chimera drew up Hick's 12gage Remington 870 shotgun and asked over the bellowing of the overhead MG-42, _"how do you use this thing?"_ Hicks turned, grabbed the gun and imitated how to operate it then loaded a couple 12gage shells into the feed port and handed it back commenting, _"shoot em in the face, that's their weakness!"_ Then resuming his rampage with the lightmachinegun. Chimera sat between the two men, aiming the gun at a group of killer suits armed with scoped HkG-11 machineguns, pulling the trigger and sending them tumbling backwards with bullet-hole-saturated torsos. She then cocked the weapon and fired it rapidly, making the blockade more effective as more mercenaries pored in through the gates.

Suddenly, an inhuman monotonous crescendo of banshee wails and clanging chains filled the air striking fear into the hearts of the men fighting off the agents in the courtyard. "Thomson! Incoming tanks, allot of incoming tanks!" Moody yelled as Hicks and Chimera reloaded their weapons. When the clouds un-enclose the moon, the ambient light reveals a flowing river of Bison corp. mercenaries armed with hi-tech weaponry mixed in with Patton tanks and M110A2 203mm Howitzer artillery tanks moving in on the palace. As Moody fired his .30cal over the edge of the balcony, an iron window-shutter swung open and out came a flying shaped charge and additional light-machinegun fire. "Alright! Some fire support!" Hicks yelled as a 203mm shell impacted on balcony below his.

In the window next door, Andy reloaded his RPG-7V scoped anti tank rifle as Jade sprayed 7.7mm ammunition into the troops in the distance with Andy's Type96 lightmachinegun. The boy took aim and fired a shaped-charge into one of the Howitzers causing a cascade of six additional explosions as the ammunition discharged into the Patton tank escorts, flinging their twisted chassis into groups of killer suits. "There's no way we can hold this palace, there are way too many!" Andy said ducking a laser-guided rocket as Jade nailed the AGM gunner in the middle of the forehead. Upstairs, Kitana had run out of ammunition and worked the MG-42 light machinegun as Thomson engaged the opposing tanks with his Panzerschrek; which despite its capability of demolishing a tank in one hit, was not enough to fend off a division of them, even with Andy's help it was improbable.

Suddenly as Thomson took aim with his anti tank weapon, the fortress jolted violently causing him to misfire into the window frame where Kitana operated the MG-42. _"We got mercs, - in the house!"_ Moody yelled from below as Thomson and Kitana brushed each other off and headed to the stairwell. "Lucky I wasn't using a nitrous napalm Magnesium C4 shaped-charge, if it weren't for that dud-rocket, we'd both be dead, everyone below us too." The commando said as he and Kitana were met by a suppressing fire. The two backed up the stairwell, Thomson firing a shaped charge into the group of mercenaries as Kitana sprayed 7.92mm armor-piercing rounds into the remainder of the squad. Thomson out of frustration pulled six stick grenades out of his MRS and chucked them down the stairs, reloading his Panzerschrek and firing into the growing group of enemies again, causing the grenades to discharge. The two turned to run just narrowly evading the collage of rocks that came down when a section of the stairwell collapsed. "How do we get back down?" Kitana asked changing out the ammunition drum on the MG-42 as Thomson rounded the corner.

As she was about to follow, she was startled by a sharp, fleshy, explosion, being taken aback when the commando rounded the corner dragging a cluster of organs clinging to a broken skeleton in one hand. "I have to open a sacrificial portal… This corridor and many others I've seen exceed 12ft in width and height, I should be able to fit my Tiger tank down these stairs, blow through the rockslide and offer overhead artillery to the men on the ground." He said taking the agent's heart and smearing in blood, a large pentagram spanning the hall's width onto the stone floor. The boy then placed the disseminated corpse in the center of it and dropped to one knee, mumbling some words and backing up from the site as a florescent orange whirlwind formed close to the ceiling. Suddenly, a tangled web of orange energy bolts overtook the commando; being nearly smashed by the huge charcoal gray armored vehicle when it seemingly fell from the ceiling.

Kitana froze in awe as she stared at the impressive but hostile-looking vehicle the commando stood next to. "This is my prototype Panzer VI Mk-IV Tiger tank, and the vehicle that will drive Bison's army into a constant retreat!" The boy said pulling open the left hull-mounted hatch and helping Kitana onto the chassis. Once they were both inside, Kitana took note of the metal interior and florescent liquid crystal display screen the Hellion sat in front of. "You never told me you were a sorcerer, what form of magic is this?" Kitana asked intrigued by the war machine and its gadgets. "You call it sorcery, I call it medalling…" Thomson commented starting up the reactor-fed 12cylinder 7200hp+ combustion engine. Kitana took a seat by the geranium Carbine II piston reactor and clung to it as soon as the vehicle commenced movement. On the other side of the rockslide, a cluster of killer suits armed with (M-66A2) laser-guided rocket launchers, took aim at the inhuman bellowing roars coming from behind the wall.

Suddenly the wall bursts, sending flaming pieces of stone into their toughened bodies, converting the agents into flaming, tumbling, piles of shrapnel-ensnared flesh. Back in Chimera's chamber, Moody laughed and cheered as the charcoal gray Tiger tank staggered out of the main hall with its hull and turret-mounted MG-42s bellowing as they pressed the swarm of enemies towards the entrance to the courtyard. "Yeah! Goddamn corporate tankers, try some Panzer Granite on your chow!" Hicks yelled as Moody yelled, "push em back! Don't stop shooting until they get over those slopes in the distance!" As the enemy killer suits fell into retreat, the Patton tanks attempted to destroy the Tiger tank, boxing it in with a twelve to one ratio and opening fire. The Tiger tank performed evasive maneuvers in the middle of the battlefield, using its high-acceleration and flexible hydraulic-systems (turret swing speed) to both evade, and return fire on the enemy. The shells that did impact on the Tiger's chassis, crumpled on its thick, durable, Woven Venlar armor, or caused little to no damage at all.

After Thomson destroyed the group of twelve Patton tanks, he pressed the M110A2 howitzer 203mms back with rapid three-to-four round bursts from the Tiger tank's 88mm hand-crank/automatic maingun. The blows to the enemy artillery caused some tanks to tumble several yards while the ammo discharging in their turrets propelled them even further. 15minutes later, the swarm of mercenaries and Patton tanks and artillery vehicles were ether well over the slopes in the distance, or smoldering piles of twisted steel and fused flesh. By then, the Tiger tank was well on its way back to the palace. When the armored 87ton tracked vehicle rode through the main gates, Moody, Chimera, Hicks, Jade, and Andy moved about the courtyard collecting assorted hi-tech weapons and loading them onto a mule-wagon. Thomson and Kitana exited the Tiger tank through the hull-mounted hatches on ether side of the turret and joined in, Kitana falling in love with a bloodstained 5.56mm M249 with a 200round magazine capacity. Another hour later, once the gates were well bolted, the fortress was allowed a temporary peace, and everyone fell asleep.

The next morning, Moody was the first one up. He crawled around Chimera's chamber until he recuperated and then began working on the field radio with electric tape and a Samsung assembly manual. "What are you working on?" A soft voice asked from behind him as he stripped a thin wire with his teeth. "Oh, hi, uh, I'm Sgt. Moody, I'm having trouble staying asleep so I've decided to continue my task of fixing the field radio." He replied as Jade knelt next to him in interest. "It looks complicated… How do you know where all the pieces go?" She asked as Moody thought for a moment then answered, "I have nooo idea, just tryin ta make sense of this ruddy old manual written in Taiwanese."

Jade stared at the diagrams and printing on the bloodstained manual. "That writing looks allot like Edenian writing, are you guys Rebels?" Jade asked as Moody replied in an unsure voice, "uh, no? We're just stupid for not brining more bazookas… I can't even speak Taiwanese, and I can barely read it." Moody said pushing Hicks on his stomach when he started to snore. "God he drools allot…" The Sgt. commented turning back to Jade. "I wish Pvt. Ender was here, he seemed to be a little fluent in every language, he even speaks Klingon. If only we had an engineer, or computer wiz…" Moody said shaking his head and setting down the radio. "What happed to it?" Jade asked as Moody dragged over his Thompson submachinegun by its strap and inched towards the window.

"Idaho, I think it got knocked around during the crash, and then shot during the skirmish at the river. Next time I'll sit on it, so if it gets shot, I don't have ta live ta know about it." The Sgt. replied, springing up from under the window frame and firing a burst of .45cal ammunition into another agent that was trying to climb in through the window; the corpse free-fell 40ft and shattered on the ground with a loud crunch. Men on the ground were scared awake and started at the corpse with swords drawn. Jade looked over the balcony commenting, "how did you know? Your timing was precise!" "You listen for a change in the way the air blows through the window, and respond to the hairs razing on your back, then you know…"

Moody replied surprised everyone was still asleep. Jade started at him sort of confused, being startled by a servant girl that entered the room. "Eh don't feel bad, it's a Cherokee thing, it'll come to you if fate says it so." The Sgt. added as Jade turned to the servant. "Lord Shao Kahn has requested that you all dine with him in the kitchen." The young girl said as Andy sprung up from sleeping commenting, "I'm there!" "Cpl. Hicks. Wake up before you flood us outta house n' home with your drool." Moody said strapping his Thompson and M1919A6 to his back and starting out the door with Jade adding, "water head…"

Hicks rolled over with a moan, inching his eyes open and sitting up, wiping his face with his teal T-shirt and gathering his M1919A6 and M.R.S. He looked around for his shotgun then figured Chimera still had it and followed his colleagues to the dinning room. One floor up, in the blown-out bedroom of the princess Kitana, sat the charcoal gray Tiger tank, its lengthy maingun aiming out of the broken window frame into the tree line behind the main road. Its engine rumbled and sputtered quietly, gently vibrating the entire room and being accompanied by a monotonous hum each time the turret panned left or right. Kitana woke up lying in a prone position under the chassis, aiming her M-249 lightmachinegun into the distance. The smell of alcohol from the hydraulic engine on the Tiger tank hit her nose as she got up from under it, making her nose twitch as she made her way to the servant standing in the doorway.

"Your father has requested that you and your Hellion companion dine with him in the kitchen." The girl said as Kitana nodded and went over to the sleeping commando. The boy was found sleeping on his back, between the armored skirts, and the top of the left track grouping on the Tiger tank, which served as a metal hammock. "Thomson, my father wants us to dine with him," She said placing her hand gently on his chest as he stirred awake; letting his Panzerschrek slide out of the chassis, followed by him and his MG-42. He strapped on his M.R.S on the way out and proceeded downstairs to the dinning room with the others. When they got there, Thomson gawked at the long table lined with various foods, sitting with the rest of his team between Moody and Jade. Kitana sat across from him next to Andy, a guard, and Hicks. Chimera sat to the right of Moody, being taken aback by Thomson's appearance. The servants that handed him and the others their plates of food couldn't help but stare ether.

Kitana was use to it and seemed to treat him like a normal person. Kahn got everyone's attention 2minutes into the meal and razed his goblet saying, "let us have a toast, to these courageous men, who defended our castle from the mysterious intruders!" With that phrase everyone stood up, razed their goblets and sipped them, sitting back down in synchronization. All but Sgt. Moody. "Uh, actually, I think this toast should go to the 'real' hero. This Knichian Strider sitting next to me, and this beautiful young lady on the right, Jade.

I mean comon guys, admit it, we were gettin our asses pounded until Thomson rolled out in that steel beast of his and chased those basterds over the mountains and through the woods back into their fox holes." Moody said pulling Thomson out of his seat and shaking his hand in gratitude. Kahn snickered commenting, "this Hellion drove an entire army into an uncontrolled retreat?" "Its true father, I was with him." Kitana stood up and said, continuing her debriefing, "He opened a portal to the underworld using some bizarre form of sorcery and brought back an iron war machine of his creation, driving the enemy back and destroying war machines similar to its design." Kitana said as Kahn lent back in his chair asking, "If so my daughter, then where is this 'steel beast?'"

"I'll have him bring it down here if you'd like proof." She replied as one of the masked soldiers among the group confessed, "I saw something too Lord Kahn, it passed by dragging a sharp gust of wind and disappearing into the blackness beyond the main gates!" Thomson became frustrated and got up from the table heading to the stairwell and disappearing around the bend. As everyone ate silently, talking amongst themselves a bellowing inhuman monotone echoed down the hall, cross-fading into a dense rumbling sound as something staggered closer to the foot of the wide stairwell. Shao Kahn in awe of the machine gets up from his seat and approaches the Tiger tank as it clamors to a gentle halt near the opposite end of the table, and the commando exits one of the hull-mounted hatches. "This is the 'steel beast' Moody was referring to, and this is what saved your precious palace and possibly 'you' from being condemned to a life of tissue sampling and dissection." Thomson said as Kahn ran his hand on the tip of the left fender, pushing on it and growing intrigued by its weight and the way the Woven Venlar felt under his hands.

Kahn drew up a random goblet and razed it saying, "Then let us have a toast to the man of the hour!" with that said, everyone stood and repeated the routine of the previous toast and then sat back down getting further into their meals. After breakfast, everyone parted, returning to posts around the palace or resuming previous tasks; Thomson backing the Tiger tank up the stairwell and parking it at the window in Kitana's new room, and Moody reattempting to fix the field radio with limited knowledge of electronics and the inability to fluently read a Taiwanese instruction manual. Hicks and Chimera sorted weapons and ammo from the stockpile acquired the night before while exchanging life stories.


	6. Coping With Daily Life In Outworld

Chapter 5

'Coping With Daily Life In Outworld'

Deep into the tree line near the beach; Pvt. Tom Nooney sprinted through an endless maze of perfectly strait tree trunks. The banshee wails of arching overhead artillery haunting his every step as clouds of red orange flames erupted around him, spilling in all directions, swallowing everything in site, shattering tall trees and causing him to stagger in hap hazardous zigzags as the 400mm shells caused the ground to violently tremble under his feet. After another minute of running, the artillery barrages stopped, allowing him to rest on a cleanly cut tree stump. "Haw damn…"

He said as he noticed killer suits creeping out from behind the trees about 100yards in front of him. The soldier drew up his 5.56mm A.P M16A1/M203 assault rifle and fired jittery bursts accurately into the opposing force; ducking behind a rock as the agents returned fire with scoped AKS 74UN assault rifles. Tom grabbed the secondary trigger on his M203, leaning around the rock and launching a 40mm grenade into a killer suit, taken aback when the agent continues forward out of the smoke screen with glowing red shrapnel lodged in his face. "What the hell are these things?" He said drawing up his M9A1 bazooka and firing a shaped-charge into the agent's torso, converting him to a sliding pile of entrails.

As the Pvt. Turned to run while reloading his M9A1, he stopped dead in his tracks, dropping to a prone position and firing his bazooka at a Patton tank that seemed to almost recently appear in the near distance without his knowledge. The M7A1 shaped charge punched a hole in the left front of the turret just above the co-axial machinegun; then caused the rig to implode as the charge triggered a series of internal explosions. Tom sat up in a crouched position, spotting his partner, Pvt. Ender Barnes, in the light haze of fog.

"Ender, over here!" Tom yelled putting his M16A2/M203 over the top of the rock and spraying an agent full of holes as it charged at him with a blaring AKS-74. Ender sprinted from his position in the clearing, and straddled behind the rock with Tom, putting his Thompson around the rock and emptying a clip on several mercenaries coming in from deer-trails in the tall grass right of the killer suits. "Comon Ender, we gotta get as far inland as possible, there's a Bison Corp. battleship on the western horizon. 'Benihava' is scraping the beach and tree line for the rest of our team with artillery barrages!" Tom yelled over the clatters of rifle fire, darting east towards the hill slopes with a reciting fire.

As they climbed up a green, grassy hill slope, 400mm shells arched over their heads landing ether above them or way below them as the Benihava engaged them from the beach. When they got over the hill, Ender suffering from shellshock as Tom carried him over his shoulders, a group of six Sheridan tanks stammered over the slope from the north in an inhuman crescendo of clanging chains and growling engines, firing co-axial machineguns and taking aim with their oversized 152mm cannons. Tom darted down the hill heading southeast, diving into the ground as a cluster of blunt gunpowder bursts crackled off from behind him. He then put Ender down, and fired another shaped charge from his bazooka, being surprised when the armor-piercing shell punches through the top of the turret and out the bottom of the chassis, converting the Sheridan tank into a tumbling heap of exploding metal. When he looked back at Pvt. Ender, the young man was already 20yrds in front of him, engaging the killer suits waiting for the two Teranovan soldiers at the bottom of the slope in the tree line.

Tom reloaded his M9A1, sprinted down the hill as the other five Sheridan tanks charged at him with blaring co-axial machineguns, stammering from recoil upon firing their oversized cannons. About a kilometer away, Mileena and Ryan are startled to a waking state by a faint explosion in the distance to the northwest. Ryan and her gather their weapons and pound on the hull to wake Nooney and Tommy. Nooney had already been awake, and listened attentively to the clusters of explosions and faint banshee-wails in the distance. "Hey guys, I think I hear, a Thompson rifle or an M16 goin off over there!" Nooney called from on top the tattered fuselage of the crashed bomber. "Maybe its Hicks and Moody!" Tommy said entering the bomber and exiting with a red Huffy telescope.

"What the fuck?" He commented handing Ryan the telescope as Mileena drew up one of Nooney's monoculars. "That aint Moody and Hicks, that's Ender and the other Nooney kid!" Ryan commented as Mileena noticed how easily Tom blew up the tanks in the background. "Why the shit, would Bison send Sheridan tanks after us? They aint even made out of steel, they're aluminum, you could toast one with an M-79." Ryan grumbled as Tom blew up the last tank and sprinted down the hill with Ender taking point as the flaming chassis tumbled down closely behind them, discharging ammunition as it bounced and trailed debris ensnared with the burning flesh of its operators.

"I think they're heading this way, somebody get me a flare gun!" Ryan said as Nooney flipped out a .22cal style flare gun and handed it to the anti-tank gunner. Ryan fired the yellow flare into the air waiting for a reply. Less than a kilometer north of Zansatsu, Ender spots the yellow corona arching over a cluster of indigenous structures in the distance. "Hey Tom? That's our boys, they're using your brother's flare gun, I think I can see the plane from here!" Ender called back to his partner as both men froze in awe of the violent thudding sound echoing through the forest. "How the hell did Bison get a chopper through the slipstream?" Tom commented as Ender pointed at the aircraft pulling in from the northwest, "CH-60 Blackhawk, commin in from the west!" "Hit the deck Ender! The side gunner's got a minigun!" Tom yelled as the soil around the two was covered in bullet holes.

Pinned down by the suppressing fire, the two soldiers scrambled for cover from the minigunner on the CH-60. "Ender! Let's split up and make for that cave up ahead!" Tom hollered over the metallic sputtering of the minigun. In desperation, Tom and Ender broke off in separate directions, forcing the Blackhawk to chase after 'one' person, Tom, and let the other escape. Back at Zansatsu, Tommy spots the urban gray helicopter scouring the tree line in the distance.

Using his Huffy bran telescope, he panned ahead of the chopper further down the hill slope, spotting Tom staggering out of a patch of foliage firing his M16A1/M203 into the Blackhawk's fuselage. "Nooney!" Tommy called down from the left side of the tail rotor. "It's Tom, he's being chased by one of Bison's CH-60s! Get on the nose-mounted flak gun and see if you can knock it out of the sky!" He finished as Nooney hopped on the quad 20mm A.A gun and peered through its 8x magnification scope. "Okay- here goes allot a nothin!" The nose-gunner said opening fire on the aircraft in the distance; the muzzle flares from the flak guns reaching lengths of three to four feet.

Now 662yards northeast of Zansatsu, the Blackhawk staggered in drunken patterns, several large bullet holes erupting on its upper fuselage, choking the air intake on the now purged turbine engine. Tom stops in his tracks and fires a shaped 60mm charge from his M9A1, hitting the bottom of the chopper's tail and throwing it into a hap hazardous front flipping motion when the tail snapped in two. Several more 20mm shells impacted on the top of the cockpit causing the Blackhawk to explode, violently flinging the now shellshock-inflicted minigunner into a nearby tree trunk.

As the flaming chassis tumbled down the hill, Tom spotted the woman squirming in pain, impaled on a barrel from the M-134 (minigun). He darted in front of the tumbling aircraft, scooping her into his arms and diving out of the Blackhawk's path, narrowly evading sudden death when the rig collided with the tree. "Awe damn… I gotta get outta here." Tom said as the monotonous crescendo of banshee wails and shuttering platelets haunted him over the hill. The woman in his arms moaned and muttered profanity as the bobbing motion of Tom's jogging jerked the barrel around in her liver.

When Tom got to the hideout in the cave, he found Ender standing over a pile of haphazardly mangled agents with his smoking MG-34 tightly grasped in his hands. "The bastards set up an ambush, they knew we'd come here, I had to waste the last of the ammo in my MG-34, they just kept coming. I can't believe I survived with seventy-five lousy rounds…" The support-gunner finished as an eerie silence fell upon the cave. "Good job Ender, I found our minigunner," Tom said breaking the silence that beset the cave with suspicion. "Hey she's kinda pretty," Ender, replied starting at the mercenary's soft expression, and shapeful body. "She tried and almost succeeded in killing us!"

Tom said grimly, "but she 'is' kinda pretty…" he added, setting the woman on a slanted granite rock. "We should patch her up and give her a gun later when she feels better." Ender suggested as Tom shrugged and started at the mercenary's wound. When he ripped her vest open, several holes just above her breasts about 2.3cm in diameter gushed blood with every gargling breath she took. "Ender pass me that pair of pliers in your toolkit will yah?" Tom asked as Ender handed him the device.

"This is goanna hurt like a bat outta Hell, you got nailed by one of our 20mm cannons pretty bad back there, most of em went through, but there's still one lodged in your lung. I gotta pull it out and seal the wound before the unit collapses." Tom said as Ender slid his forearm into the woman's mouth. "Alright Tom, dig-in." Ender said as Tom dug into the wound for the 20mm shell. The woman bridged up several times biting deep into Ender's arm then letting out an agonizing scream as Tom slid the 20mm bore out of her chest, tossing it to the side. Ender rolled back his sleeve recoiling from the 1cm deep teeth marks in his forearm streaming blood onto the stone floor. "Shit man, she bites like a bear-trap!"

He commented wrapping the bleeding limb in a bandage. Looking at the size of the bullet shell rolling around on the floor next to Tom; the woman passed out, coughing violently in her sleep as Ender stitched up the other wounds in her chest and back. "Give her some Nyquil incase her throat gets irritated from all the coughing." Tom said quickly removing a couple of the mercenary's shattered ribs, and fusing one of the lung-wounds closed with the still red-hot barrel heat sink of Ender's MG-34 light machinegun.

Within fifteen minutes, the two Teranovan soldiers stitched up all the wounds and brought the woman to a peaceful sleeping state. _"Okay, she's patched up nice and tight, we need to continue moving south towards the garrisoned structures in that village where we saw that yellow flare."_ Tom said as the faint crescendo of growling combustion engines and clanging tracks became noticeable beyond the entrance. The two men gathered their things and then carried the female mercenary deeper into the cave using a couple bamboo staffs leaning against the wall and Tom's sleeping bag as a stretcher. Ender guided them north, hoping not to run into an ambush, using the electric compass on the top corner of his HUD and the mounted flashlight on his MG-34 to navigate through the dark network of caves.

Teranovan and Knichian soldiers are all implanted with a Central Processing Unit located deep in their hypothalamus. This allows them to operate an advanced, transparent desktop-computer-like interface that serves as an auto-mapping unit, quick math co-processor to enhance judgment, and an auto-executable coordination unit to utilize and quickly master physical maneuvers like martial arts or for example; juggling. The implanted C.P.U can also record dreams, run Windows 98 compatible, or MS-DOS programs, support multitasking or coordinate the body's immune system to fight off pathogens that cannot be cured by urban medicine. The Heads Up Display consists of a digital ammunition readout, health status bar measured in , and a motion tracker or compass in the top left corner. The C.P.U can also digitally configure conductivity of the eardrum to eliminate the annoyance of loud sounds or enhance faint ones, enhance touch, site, and scent, and analyze all five senses to give user a better understanding of his or her environment. Additional functions control zinc levels in bloodstream enabling fast healing, and saturnine levels in the brain to level-out emotional health.

Back at the palace, in Shao Kahn's garden of black roses, originally belonging to the deceased Queen Sindel, where Kahn's soldiers spent their breaks being pleasured by the slave women; Thomson sat by himself at the edge of a beautiful fountain dipping his Panzerschrek in the water to clean out its soot-drenched internals. The commando had spent the last hour surveying the horizon and setting up barricades in garrisoned structures around the palace. As he dug the soot out of the Panzerschrek's exhaust port, he felt someone take a seat on the stone ledge beside him.

The scent of perfume tickled his nose as he pushed his arm further into the back of his weapon. "So you're the sorcerer Chimera told me about…" An exasperated woman's voice said from behind him. Thomson yanked his arm out of the 5ft tube and turned to look at the woman, being taken aback by her appearance then asking, "do you always refer to yourself in 3rd person?" "No, never, I'm Hjentew, Chimera's twin sister. I've been waiting all day to meet you, I have so many questions to ask." The slave girl replied scooting closer to the commando as he rolled up his short sleeve and cleaned his soiled white arm in the fountain.

"Well, I've got all day, fire away…" Thomson said shaking a clump of rotten flesh out of the front of his Panzerschrek. "Okay, do you know anything about the iron birds that fell from the sky yesterday morning followed by fire and brimstone and hordes of dead dragons?" Hjentew asked as Thomson paused for a moment. "A bright star aside from the sun expanded in the western sky during a storm, causing the air to shimmer, then the clouds rapidly broke up when the star extinguished." She added as Thomson replied, "Oh, 'that' iron bird and fire and brimstone followed by a storm of dragon corpses and entrails. Yeah I know all about that. I'm the one who told my instructor to drop the 4,000lb bombs, 'which were on fire because of the dragons,' and I'm the one who ruptured the warp core with this rocket launcher when the plane exploded." The commando finished as Hjentew's face lit-up with excitement. "I knew it, I knew it had to be you. Who else would cause so many big explosions?" "Uh 'Andy…'" The commando replied remembering the attack on the palace the night before.

"Can I show you something? I think you might be able to tell me what it is when you see it." Hjentew asked as Thomson nodded, gathering his Panzerschrek and MG-42 and following her out the castle's rear exit. The two walked for about a half kilometer finally stopping at a huge break in the forest where a crater remained. Snapped tree-trunks and floating embers turned the site into a haphazard as the gentle wind fueled the grease fires scattered amongst the huge depression. Hjentew pointed to a yellow-tipped mostly oxidized chunk of metal that lay in the middle of the crater. "Do you now anything about that? It struck the ground a little after the fire and brimstone fell on us." The slave girl said as Thomson squinted at the chunk of debris. "Damn right I do, that's the nose of a Behemoth-class B-17A Flying Fortress! I think it's the plane 'I' rode in on, the Aurora." The commando said getting closer and moving to the front of the nose peering through some thick glass with four gun-barrels protruding from its convex surface.

"Hey, I think the 37mm Flak gun is still intact." He added as Hjentew followed the commando into the back of the cockpit. The Hellion climbed down a hatch in the floor just in back of the twisted pair of pilot seats and dropped onto the flak gun. Thomson looks over both edges of the platform, checks some wires and climbs back out. "I can salvage this flak cannon by cutting it out of the nose with a plate-cutter, can you help me search the small scattered crates for one?" Thomson asked as Hjentew nodded with a smile. "What does it look like?" She asked, starting towards a cluster of boxes.

"Its about 28inches long, looks like a saw, says 'Durocraft' in bold black letters on the side of the blade, its red n' silver colored, kinda heavy." The commando replied as Hjentew drew up a sword-like device and called, "like this?" "That's it! Stand back in case the hull collapses while I'm cutting!" Thomson said, grabbing the plate-cutter, pulling the starter cord on the heated chainsaw and slicing through the flak-gun's thick glass and metal cage. When the cage fell forward into a grease fire, the commando tossed the plate-cutter to the side and began breaking the bolts off the screws anchoring the base of the flak-gun to the hull of the plane with the back of his Panzerschrek.

Suddenly, as he accidentally grabbed the trigger to fire the flak gun while stopping himself from tripping, Thomson was thrown from the nose into a crater wall when the quad 37mm cannon exploded. When the smoke cleared, Hjentew started at the lopsided rig, taking note of its now twisted or dismantled cannons. Thomson got up from the fall and jogged over with an adjustable wrench he found on the floor and decided to separate the functioning flak guns, 'three of four,' to be used as individual portable anti-tank/anti-aircraft rifles. Several minutes later, the task of dismantling the twisted and quite stubborn chassis was finished, and all that remained was the lack of sufficient ammunition for all three trigger-less flak rifles. "We need to find the 2.3cm ammunition belts used to operate the flak guns, if the Maktor Reloading System survived the explosion, it should be near or in the mid-section of the fuselage. Do you know any other places where debris from the Aurora could have fallen?" Thomson asked as Hjentew guided him deeper into the patchy forest.

The two came to another clearing in the forest, assorted smaller pieces of debris littered the grassland. Among them were boxes of .50cal 12.7mm ammunition. The chain-belts were clustered around the ruins of the Aurora's tail rotor, which towered over some of the medium sized trees. "Wow, you're a big help, the tail-gun looks like it's still intact." Thomson commented patting Hjentew's bare back and starting at the partial fuselage. "Hey, find a wrench and see if you can help me with some of the bolts holding these .50cal Browning machineguns together." He added as the slave girl willingly complied. As Thomson successfully wrenched one of the .50cals off the swiveling chassis, he signaled the Tiger tank back at the palace to rendezvous at his current position using an MS-DOS command prompt on his HUD to send the message. Back at the palace, Kitana is startled out of her short nap by the tank's roaring engine, hitching a ride on the back of the chassis as it started down the stairwell. At the Aurora's crash site, Hjentew slid the second surviving .50cal Browning machinegun out of the tail turret, letting it to rest on the gravel.

The two waited a minute, stacking the .50cals on top of each other and carrying them towards the palace as the charcoal gray rust-stained Tiger Mk-VI emerged from a patch of thick foliage 60yrds ahead. The tank stammered to a sloppy halt as its grooved tracks slid on the gravel and dead tree roots. Kitana let herself slide off the back of the chassis, greeting Thomson with a friendly half-hug and nodding at Hjentew. The three friends hefted the 150lb machineguns onto the front of the chassis one at a time, carrying them over the turret and tying them to the top of the rear chassis with steel cables.

After the task was done, all three of them laid on top the turret resting their aching muscles as it began to rain. "Awe that feels soo, -good…" Kitana sighed as she drank some of the water from the dreary sky. "We should get going, I have to walk to the Dragon Temple southeast of the palace to explain to Zangyaku why I failed to show up for yesterday's session…" Kitana said breaking the soothing silence. "Okay, I'll drive you up there, we should drop off Hjentew before she gets in trouble, I'd hate for that to happen especially because she took time off to show me the crash sites." Thomson replied as they entered the Tiger through ether hull mounted hatch and drove off.

When they returned, Thomson brought the tank to a steady 10mph, letting Hjentew climb out onto the top of the turret and over the garden wall. He then watched her from a small hole in the wall, waiting until she got to safety, before speeding off to the Dragon Temple, taking a detour around the perimeter of the palace as Kitana gave him directions. At about noon, the Tiger tank came up on the slope, which the foundation of the Dragon Temple was built on, coming to a gentle halt and letting Kitana out. Thomson pushed down on the throttle key on his keyboard, jolting the 87ton heavy-tank further up the hill, until it was lodged on a stone ridge, which would prevent it from sliding down. The commando left the tank on auto-scan, a feature that enabled the tank to independently engage and destroy targets, and exited the hull-mounted hatch with his Panzerschrek strapped to his back and MG-42 drawn. When he caught up to Kitana in the temple dojo, she stood before a tall, elderly man, with black hair, dressed in long, flowing, black and gray robes. Thomson approached passively bowing to the teacher and resting on one knee behind Kitana.

"Why were you not present yesterday for your training?" Zangyaku hissed slapping Kitana and arousing Thomson's aggression as the commando stood up, starting forward with his MG-42. "Thomson, its okay, I'm fine, just relax, I get this everyday." Kitana replied shaking off the blow to her jaw. "Ogay, just makin sure…" Thomson replied withdrawing from his standing prone position and sitting back down. "Sir, I just didn't have the time, incase you haven't heard, my father's palace was bombarded by pieces of an iron airship, and nearly destroyed in last night's skirmish. An explosion in the western sky wiped-out the population of dragons in this region of Outworld and started a frenzy amongst us and the Rebel opposing forces."

She finished being slapped again as Zangyaku replied, "And when the shower of brimstone was over, you still could not come? I don't care about Shao Kahn's public affairs, that is still no excuse for missing your training yesterday!" "My father led an offensive on the village of Zansatsu aiming to kill Jeice and his followers because he thought they were responsible!" Kitana snapped starting towards the teacher as Thomson picked up on her emotional distress based on skin-temperature and voice tone. Zangyaku grabbed her right arm and twisted it out of the socket, Kitana letting out a sharp grunt and grinding her teeth out of anger. Thomson lunges out of his sitting position catching Zangyaku off guard as he struck the man with the back of his MG-42 in the upper left torso; forcing him to unhand Kitana. When Zangyaku came at the commando, the Hellion swept the ground inches from the instructor's feet with gunfire. Violently swinging the MG-42 in one hand from left to right, pushing Zangyaku back with every trigger pull.

The Hellion commando did this ten times before stopping and pointing the lightmachinegun at the teacher's torso. "Calm down yet? Or do I have to blow your feet off next time…" Thomson commented, as Zangyaku throbbed with adrenaline, and his ears rang from the bellowing machinegun. "You pathetic Hellions. Always hiding behind your technology to counter your shortcomings as warriors! Your race is weak! That's why the Elder Gods condemn you to the underworld!" Zangyaku said harshly as Kitana struggled to get her arm back in the socket.

"And you! Hiding behind a Hellion and failing to take responsibility for you actions! Pathetic! You're just like your father! Cowards are you all! Look at you, squirming on the floor like a fresh piece of larva before a sparrow!" The teacher added as Kitana laughed under her breath replying, "I hide behind no one. MASTER!" She said snapping her dislocated arm back in place. "The Hellion chose to protect me by will of his own. Because he loves me." She ended as Thomson changed out the ammo drum on his MG-42, stating, "Dammit! You weren't supposed ta know that, because I made Moody swear not to say anything… He's a dead Chico…" "-Moody never said anything, I've never actually met him any further than a friendly hello." Kitana replied as Zangyaku watched carefully.

"It shows Thomson… The way you handled my flesh when my intestines fell out onto the soil during the retreat, the way you guided my hands while teaching me to correctly fire the M87R sniper rifle, the way you attentively listen to me when I get moody and start babbling about my childhood, the way you looked at me today during the breakfast banquet; you've grown obsessively in love with me in the passed day and a half and you're trying to hide it behind your pessimism and fearless acts of suicide." Kitana said smiling as the ivory white ears on Thomson's head turned red momentarily then resumed their colorless state. "Uh… yeah?" The commando said, being so nervous that understanding English speech became difficult. "I really love you, but I'm not quite obsessed… I just wish you were my mom or older sister… Not yet, wanting to marry you, but it sounds good right about now." Thomson replied bottling his feelings up inside to hide his obvious weakness. "Sorry for the Clint-Eastwood-related defensive behavior, master Zangyaku, I just hate seeing women willingly battered by men… Pet-Peev…" Thomson added bowing to the teacher.

"I respect your beliefs as both a man, and a Hellion… I guess for once I was a little harsh on you, Kitana…" Zangyaku said looking down at the bullet holes in the tile floor. "You're troubled about something, that's why Thomson caught you off guard isn't it?" Kitana asked coming closer to Zangyaku. "I lost my daughter in the storm, she was taken away by one of the dragons during the firefight in the sky. They were clustered around a single yellow bird, which spewed fiery darts from its, tail, and belly. She was practicing her spear-throwing techniques on horseback in the courtyard on the side of the slope when it happened."

He said shedding a tear as Kitana threw an arm over his shoulder, feeling awkward. "By now she would be horribly mangled and hollowed-out at the belly… I, 'Zangyaku' master of teaching through example and cruelty, am weak; weeping over my daughter and letting it tamper with my skill!" The instructor said as Thomson added, "nooo, you're just a father crying over his horribly-mangled daughter, whom may I add, is too full of himself and concerned about his ego to stop beating himself up over his love and affection for her… Trust me, I'm right, I read people…" The commando finished as Kitana sat the weeping legend down on a cushioned chair at the corner of the room.

"Thomson, isn't there anything we can do to at least give him closure?" The princess asked as the Hellion thought for a moment then approached Zangyaku, sitting cross-legged before him. "Well dude, let's start with the basics. Today I, the weak, pathetic Hellion, am goanna teach you a lesson about 'hope.' What does your daughter look like?" Thomson asked adjusting the aimer on his MG-42 for medium range targets. "Xenia was about 5'7, brown eyes, perfectly thin eye-brows, long two-tone blond hair, plush lips like her mother, and a cute pug-nose. You'd find her quite exotic-looking if you were to lay eyes upon her." Zangyaku finished feeling a moment of relief as memories of Xenia's childhood flashed in the back of his mind. "Was she warring a dark-colored, partially armor-platted leather combat outfit with little brass-colored dragon emblems imbedded in the armored skirts, with shielded, narrow-tipped, knee-high metallic dark-green boots?" Thomson asked digging in his pant-pocket for something. "Yes, exactly, you must have seen her." The man said lighting up with joy as the boy pulled out a gold dragon emblem.

"Was she warring this? I saw her trapped in the jaws of one of those dragons while free falling out of my plane. It was right before I passed-on my parachute to one of my unconscious colleagues. I sprayed the dragon with my MG-42 until I fell out of visibility. Last I saw of the scaly bastard he was tumbling out of the sky with one of the wings tangled in its large intestine. Your daughter threw this at me purposely I think. When I hit the red ocean from 50,000ft, I was knocked unconscious, then before I drowned face-flat in the nasty tasting water, this medallion hit me right smack-dab in the ass n' woke me up. The explosion in the western sky did kill off the population of dragons in the region, in fact almost instantly, the shockwave from the warp-core I blew up was semi-toxic, nothing could survive unless it were vaccinated against different forms of cancer, or below the tremors." The commando finished as Kitana added, "I saw the explosion, the second plane I mean, it was spherical, only the dragons within the sphere were destroyed."

"Meaning my daughter was not plagued with the shockwave, but instead crashed somewhere in Outworld?" Zangyaku asked as Thomson replied, "yeah, basically what I'm gettin to…" "But how can one man or even an army find one girl in the middle of this chaotic realm?" Zangyaku asked getting up from his seat starting to look to his student and new friend for support. "Well dude, the same way you find a missing K-Mart sign autographed by Jennifer Lopez floating in the middle of the pacific ocean, bring a big boat with enough 38cm guns and 2.3cm flak cannons to paint the sky black with Panzer Granite and let the guns do the talkin." Thomson nodded slinging his MG-42 over his shoulder. "Do you have a ship? And what good would that do anyway?"

Kitana asked pasting back and fourth behind the commando. "Well, my ship, 'the Revenant,' happens to have enough parts onboard to construct a huey gunship, a pair of cobra gunships, a P-57 mustang, and two Stuka dive-bombers, plus the hangar has some extra tanks and vehicles we could utilize and a 'working radio' the size of your huge bed." Thomson replied as Zangyaku added, "But you have to do _'what' _in order for this plan of yours to work?" The Hellion commando sighed as he sat back down stating, "The Revenant is still in the underworld, probably drifting atop the lava-beds by now. I have to find another equivalent blood-sacrifice and the remains of a ship in Outworld and open a portal using the dead ship as a means of transferring Revenant from the spiritual plain, onto our plain or realm." "What?" Kitana asked growing confused, "basically the Revenant trades places with a shipwreck of my choosing in Outworld and raises to the surface of the red ocean…"

Thomson clarified as Kitana asked, "wasn't that easier to say?" "-No… Not-really." The commando replied. "I would like to come with you, I would like to see my daughter for one last time before burying her corpse in the wastelands, where she was born." Zangyaku said as Thomson and Kitana guided him outside. When the three start down the slope, Zangyaku squinting at the charcoal-gray Tiger tank in the near distance as its turret scanned side to side; Thomson spots the M.R.S from the Aurora, lodged in the top floor of the Dragon Temple. "Hey look! The 37mm flak rounds me and Hjentew were searching for at the crash site!"

The commando exclaimed drawing up his Panzerschrek and firing a shaped charge at the remaining pillar holding up the front side of the pyramid-shaped roof. Out of the smoke, the M.R.S free fell to the ground, imbedding itself in the stone pathway leading from the temple entrance. Thomson continued to the tank reloading his Panzerschrek commenting, "I'll fix your room on a weekend…" and then helping Zangyaku into the hull-mounted hatch on the right front of the chassis.

Once they were inside, Thomson drove the tank further up the slope, pivoting the back of its chassis to face the M.R.S and exiting. The commando, with the help of Kitana and Zangyaku, gathered about 20,000rounds and fed them into the dual M.R.S ports located on the Tiger tank's top-rear turret. After shutting the dual ports and re-entering the armored vehicle, the Tiger tank recklessly staggered down the rough, gravel-covered slope, heading back to the palace in the distance for the reinforcements needed to get to the beachhead and raze the Revenant…


	7. The Plan

Chapter 6

'The Plan'

At about 3:30PM (Earth Time) the Tiger tank roared into the front gates of the palace; reducing its speed to 20mph as it entered the vast main hall and took a right starting up the stairwell. Once on the 41st floor, the Tiger tank slowly starts down a dreary stone corridor lined with skull-shaped torch-lamps, making another right into Kitana's room and parking with its maingun aiming out the window at the western horizon. The three exit, Thomson signaling Zangyaku to stay in the tank until confirmation of Shao Kahn's approval of him being there. The commando headed off to the floor below them to inform Sgt. Moody, Cpl. Hicks, and Andy, about his plan to raise Revenant. Kitana took a separate path, heading to her father's chambers to talk to him about Zangyaku's situation.

On the stairwell, Thomson runs into Jade while reloading his Panzerschrek. "Hey Jade. Can you tell Moody there's goanna be a mission briefing in Kitana's room?" The commando asked as Jade replied, "Concerning what?" "Zangyaku's daughter was taken by one of those dragons during the firestorm. I believe she may very well be alive, I need to rally a team and break through the enemy front to the beachhead so I can raise my battleship from the underworld." He replied as Jade nodded and led him to Moody's current position.

"Everyone's dinning in the kitchen, people are starting to talk about the disappearance of Kitana's twin sister Mileena; your mission may have to be postponed. Lord Kahn has assembled a plan to backtrack the path of the great retreat and search for her there. He believes she may have fallen captive of this new enemy." Jade said as they got to the 20th floor. "Oh, she never told me she had a twin sister." The commando said strapping his Panzerschrek to his back. "That's because she's ashamed of Mileena. Mileena and her have this sort of animosity between them, always competing for ego, or in Mileena's case, Shao Kahn's acceptance." Jade said as they entered the dinning room. "Wow, Kitana's egotistical? As in 'full of herself?'" Thomson asked adjusting the position of the shaped charge sticking out of the back of his Panzerschrek. "Not nearly as much as Shao Kahn, she can be arrogant, and humble when she wants to. -There's Moody over there by Chimera and Hicks." Jade said starting back towards the stairwell to tend to other business.

The commando ran over sitting next to Hicks and addressing Moody. "Sgt." "Yeah what's up?" Moody replied leaning forward. "Zangyaku's daughter was taken by one of those dragon creatures during the attack on the Aurora, I have constructed a briefing action to get her back and get us a working radio; have anyone interested meet in Kitana's room until further notice after dinner." Thomson finished waiting for a reply as Hicks nodded. "Okay, we're in, if it'll get us a working radio, as oppose to fixing the old one, that'll do."

Moody then said as Thomson shook his hand and started back towards the Emperor's private chambers. When he got there, two minutes later, he found Kitana staring down at a huge map on a rounded table in the center of the room. She seemed to be making calculations with an angular device. When the commando got closer he found that Sgt. Moody had written on the map itself. Areas of heavy enemy activity were circled with a red marker; Zansatsu had a sloppily drawn plane on its south side. Tank icons were drawn east and west of the river, artillery icons clustered the slopes to the northwest, and Mileena's possible positions were plotted in a blue felt pen, along the riverbanks and western slopes of Zansatsu.

"How long ago was this map updated?" Thomson asked as Kitana stayed silent for a couple minutes then answered, "he plotted these points last night. I'm marking the areas of enemy spawn points right now, Hjentew marked areas of additional debris from your plane…" The Hellion looked around the tomblike chamber asking, "where's Kahn?" "In the sparing chamber talking with some of his generals. Those killer suits are causing more trouble than they're worth… The Tarkatans are requesting an alliance with us, they say the constant fire-storms and missile bombardments are too much to bare."

Kitana replied as Thomson asked, "did you ask him about Zangyaku?" The commando then noticed a drop of water, fall onto the map as he looked upon it, smearing Moody's crappy drawing of a B17. "Hey, are you…?" Thomson looked up at Kitana, finding tears running down her cheeks. She sniffled several times then replying, "My father wants me to kill Zangyaku, and I can't, I-can't… Not after all I've been through. Zangyaku called me his best student… He entrusted me with the Touch of Death… He let me hug him in the temple dojo… I'm the only person he's ever leant to, for emotional support, he's like a second father to me…" She said in a jittery weekend voice tone, drying up her tears.

"Kill Zangyaku, Why? If it weren't for him you wouldn't even be alive right now." The commando said growing distressed at the situation. "He says Zangyaku has accepted students who are part of the Outworld resistance, and cannot risk having warriors like myself for our enemies." Kitana said grimly as Thomson put a hand on her shoulder replying, "Then why don't you just turn down the mission, and maybe have someone else do it. Turn on Shao Kahn, I'll back you up." Kitana started to tear up again as she sat on the edge of the table replying,

"Zangyaku is one of the most skilled and dangerous warriors in Outworld… Father wishes me to use his emotional attachment to me as leverage of getting close enough to strike…" She paused after the sentence and slid off the table, sinking to her knees with a cold stare and beginning to sweat and turn pale. "Kitana, you okay?" Thomson asked catching her torso before it fell to the floor. She began to breathe short and shiver, muttering the words, "_what's, happ-pening to my heart, why does it hurt..?" _Then she curled up in a ball clenching her torso and gargling blood as Thomson began digging through his medical kit for morphine or painkiller.

The boy pulled out a twelve-gage needle syringe and stuck Kitana in the neck with it, then dumping a couple painkillers in her mouth. "Chew, chew, your having a heart attack, the aspirin'll help." The commando said as Kitana chewed the Tylenols, making expressions on her face due to the bitter taste in her mouth. He then undid her leather top and found that the stitches on her abdomen had come loose and her intestines were exposed. "I knew these shitty threads wouldn't hold, I'll have to use nylon stitches…" He said threading a needle and starting to sow up the wound. Suddenly the doors to the chamber burst open and Shao Kahn and two ninjas enter, being taken aback by the awkward scene.

"What is this?" Kahn hissed starting at Thomson who knelt over Kitana, who's top was undone. "Get back, I need to stitch up this wound, the stitches came loose during the skirmish probably." The commando said as Kahn's expression softened in understanding. The Emperor looked upon the nearly twenty bullet wounds in his daughter's torso, and the 10inch gash in her lower abdomen. "Who has done this to you daughter?" He asked in concern.

Kitana fell to a calmer state, breathing normal, but still sort of jittery as she answered, "During the retreat, after you opened fire on Thomson while he was peeing on a tree, he accidentally shot me off my horse with his missile launcher, thinking that I was one of the other men. I was not injured, just knocked unconscious. When I woke up, and looked over the belly of my dismembered horse, I found Thomson running from those killer suits. They had opened a portal right in front of us. Thomson pulled me behind a tree and sprayed several of them in half with his lightmachinegun; I caught two killer suits trying to flank us, and then dismembered the leader with my fans. When I looked back at Thomson, he was reloading his Panzerschrek and being approached by another killer suit armed with, a, um, M1L1 carbine… I folded out my fans and jumped in front of Thomson trying to buy him more time to reload. The bullets cut through my fans like paper, and I became mortally injured." Kitana said sliding one of her mangled fans at Shao Kahn. One of the ninjas, the yellow one, picked up the weapon and folded it out, canting his head to the side as him, Kahn and the blue ninja gawked at the holes in the iron.

"That's not all," Kitana said as Kahn and his ninjas resumed their attention on her. "While Thomson was tending to my wounds, a sniper fired an M87R from the foliage west of us, the shell ripped this big gash in my abdomen and spilled my intestines. Thomson gunned the killer suit down to the point of severe decapitation." She finished as Kahn gawked at the 12.7mm bullet twining in her left hand. "This was what that sniper fired at me, this bullet can penetrate the walls of this chamber and behead a man from over 6kilometers away. That's why everyone must stay away from any windows on the west side of the palace until this threat is eliminated."

She added as Thomson finished his work on the stitches and redid her leather top. Kitana stood up slowly, feeling dizzy from the gradual loss of blood in her circulatory system. "By the way Kahn, uh, got some bad news. Bad news for everyone actually… Last night, while I was helping sort the weapons straddled about in the courtyard after the enemy retreat; I found a pair of British X-Ray glasses… I have confirmed reports from some of your men that the enemy now wields the capability of seeing through walls of any thickness." The commando said as an eerie suspicion fell upon the dark room.

Thomson pulled out a pair of X-ray glasses and handed them to Kahn. "Put them on and look down at the floor…" Thomson said as Kahn slipped the specs onto his face. The emperor stumbled in haphazard patterns trying to take-in everything at once. "I can see 'everything,' the dining room, the sparring chamber! Kitana, why is Thomson's war machine parked in your bedroom?" He asked as Thomson pulled the glasses off his face. "How does this device work? Do you know what sorcery enchants it?"

Kahn asked as the Hellion commando corrected, "not sorcery… there's an endeavor most common in Earth Realm and the Underworld called 'science.' The X-Ray tube is much like the cathode ray tube found in older televisions, in this tube, a metal target is bombarded with high-energy electrons enabling the device to penetrate non-metallic solids. Aside from that definition of the device, X-ray glasses and their construction completely elude me." Thomson finished, starting to pack the medical supplies into his kit.

"Their rifles are equipped with similar devices also?" Kitana asked as Thomson started out of the room with his weapons. "Follow me to the sparing chamber so I may better explain." He called from down the stone corridor. The group of four followed, Kitana rolling up the map and strapping her M-249 light machinegun to her back to take with her. When they got to the sparing chamber in one of the towers separate from the main one, Thomson drew up an atomic-age looking, glacier-white machinegun. "This is the .223cal 5.56mm OICW electro-magnetic assault-rifle equipped with an X-Ray scope. The bullets in this gun are fired using a barrel fitted with super-conducting coils, providing a 1700meters-per-second muzzle speed. This means the gunpowder in these shells do not explode until the bullet hits somethin. This gun is also integrated with a 20mm armor-piercing semi-autocannon."

The commando said handing Kahn the shell from one of the other magazines. "From 600meters this shell can penetrate a stone wall up to 60cm thick, and at point-blank range, rip through a stone wall over 100cm thick. At any moment, one of us can be targeted by an agent armed with this type of weapon and killed, having no defense against such an incident…" He finished letting everyone take in the bitter truth. "The X-ray glasses are for use with non-scoped weapons or pistols. Just wanted ta break it to ya so if you find people randomly dropping dead, you wont be 'that' confused." The commando said exiting the room and leaving his colleagues speechless.

Two minutes later, when he got back to his Tiger tank, Hicks, Jade, Chimera, Hjentew, Moody, and Andy, were found sitting around the chassis with Zangyaku. "Wow, I take it you're all interested in this rescue mission huh?" Thomson asked as Jade replies, "Xenia and I were childhood friends, I uh, have to do this…" "I aint goin anywhere without Jade. We're kinda in it together from now on." Moody added taking Jade's hand, which was fitted with a silver, sapphire ring. "Ogay, we move out at dusk, we'll be heading northwest to avoid the gorillas hiding in the forests due west. They're not expecting us to come in with such a small force, during the night, and head towards their vehicle hangars." Thomson said as Kitana entered the room with the two ninjas on ether side of her. "My father has sent these ninjas, Sub-Zero and Scorpion, to aid us in whatever ways necessary." She then said sitting down as the ninjas crouched on ether side of the Tiger tank. "You want us to attack Bison's vehicle hangars, the ones Hicks spotted from the roof of the main tower?" Moody asked having second thoughts about the mission.

"Nooo, not 'attack' I was thinking more along the lines of stealing their stuff. See we come in nice and easy, on foot while my Tiger tank draws their attention using its strategic/programmable autopilot system to engage the bulk of the force, then sneak into the facility from the back entrance and load up on tanks and ammunition, possibly aircraft, find and collapse the enemy spawn-point and then blow the hangar and continue to the beachhead." The commando finished circling the waypoints on the map now rolled out on the floor at the center of the group. "Don't they have any working radios there? On the base I mean." Subzero asked as Hicks addressed him. "Nah, I didn't see any towers or even radar dishes…"

"Then how could they coordinate such effective ambushes? Are they telepathic?" The ninja asked as Thomson added, "they could be… Ether that or they're using cell-phones and satellite uplinks." "It aint like they're using smoke signals or nothin, but how do you use a cell-phone, or uplink without any orbiting satellites?" Moody asked as a silence fell among the group of pondering minds. "I saw a gargantuan iron bird flying around in the wastelands this afternoon, it rattled the cave we hid in with thunder each time it passed over. It had a huge deformity on its upper back, almost as if it had swallowed a giant dinner plate." Scorpion said as Subzero nodded at the statement.

"Satellite planes!" Moody exclaimed standing up to explain. "Bison is carrying military tactics from one uplink and digital phone to another, using satellite planes to relay the signals! That's why Ender and Tom didn't pick anything up on the radio scanner frequencies back at the Prometheus." Sgt. Moody finished as anyone understanding military technology sitting amongst the group, fell dumbfounded by the discovery. "How about after we hi-jack the possible aircraft and tanks from the enemy base, we use them to track down and shoot-out their satellite planes? It would knock out any means of communications and throw off their coordination." Jade suggested as Thomson nodded in agreement.

"It would make searching for Xenia and raising Revenant allot easer. We'll be able to take the network of rivers out to sea without worry of being cut-off." Hicks said as Moody commented, "see why I'm goanna marry her? She's smarter than I am." "Yeah Sarge, she could do your homework for yah when you go back ta high school." Hicks laughed as Moody tossed a handkerchief over the soldier's head adding, "you're such a water-head…" "So its settled then, we meet in the courtyard for departure, count two hours on your sun-dials people." Thomson said as the group parted for the time being.


	8. The Raids

Chapter 7

'The Raids'

Back in the village of Zansatsu, Ryan, Nooney, Mileena, and Tommy had set up a blockade at the entrance of the city opposite the nose of the B17, using the heated chainsaw-like plate cutters amongst the equipment on the plane to construct a randomly planned thick wooden bunker. The four extra .50cal M2 Browning machineguns on the plane, usually stationed in ports on ether sides of the nose, and waist, were set-up on the east and northern sections of the village wall. Ryan and Tommy trained Zansatsu's small army of 32 men to use the stationary machineguns, and the various models of assault rifles collected during Nooney's reconnaissance of the western slope bordering the town.

Overall the town was drenched in gloom, everyone stayed in sandbagged machinegun nests scattered throughout the town, or in dark huts, totting RPD light machineguns out the small windows. The children hid within the safety of the B17 with Jeice and his group of ten followers. The man entertained the children with his anti-imperial teachings and war-stories, trying to take their little minds off the vanguard of killer suits, probably hiding in the patches of sloped forest, surrounding the town. Hiding in a trench that ran under the plane's fuselage, were two well-trained volunteers armed with SA-7 Stinger missile launchers, awaiting any aircraft that would creep up on the village and attempt an aerial insertion.

Nooney was one of them; the other was a Mercenary from Bison Corp. Cpl. Elizabeth O'Malley. The woman deserted her squad after finding out the corporation's future plans and steeling a computer hard drive containing encrypted documents. "Hey Liz?" Nooney asked resting the back of his head on the soft dirt aiming his stinger launcher into the orange evening sky. "Yeah?" Elizabeth answered in a soft tone that made Nooney blush. "What were the corporation's plans anyway?" he then asked again. Elizabeth leaned leant her SA-7 on the side of the trench, planting its nose into the ground and starting to explain.

"Well, it's actually kinda stupid… Uh, Bison corp. was put under allot of pressure by NATO and the United States after a disaster struck Tokyo while they were publicly testing a new cyborg model in a simulated combat situation. The twitchy piece a crap gunned down everyone in site, then self-destructed, taking out a city block with its nuclear power cell an hour later. The founder of the company, Ted E. Bison was pulled into a trial in Nagasaki and sewed on a 'Class Act Lawsuit.' He was obligated to shutdown all operations in the Bison research facility in downtown Tokyo, and hand over the entire corporation's treasury to the Japanese government as oppose to life imprisonment for over 72,000 charges of man-slaughter." Elizabeth said taking a sip of her water bottle.

"Out of desperation, Bison sought a Knichian spy and got word of a newly-developed warp-core Knackamichie wished to test on living subjects in due time. The word on the street was that it could definitely travel through subspace and back with a limit of six seconds before becoming unstable. Knowing this, Bison contacted Knackamichie Corp. and prompted them to sell him the so-called priceless device. Bison claimed his scientists came up with a static shield that would prevent its toxic shockwave from getting out into the public; Knackamichie herself personally bidding him as low as only $500,000 dollars but only if he agreed to produce a second model, of his version and hand it over to Imperial Japan. Not having the money, Bison accepted the offer and requested that two observers from his company specializing in Nuclear physics and paranormal investigation be present during the launch.

During the launch yesterday morning, the quantum/nuclear/astrophysics specialist forced his colleague to rig the warp-core to only take the plane to the parallel dimension, but not bring it back until commanded manually. With that done, he took his colleague hostage, ether forcing the crewmembers to jump off the plane, or letting the attacking alien lizard hybrids do them in… After only one crewmember was left onboard, the physicist shot his colleague in the back and pushed her out of the plane!" Elizabeth cried wiping the soiled tears off her face and continuing. "Right after that, the remaining crew member, Thomson IV I heard, dove out after the fallen woman and fired his rocket launcher at the plane's fuselage. The missile passed through the plane's hull braking the core in half but unfortunately activating it before the physicist could be incinerated by the explosion." The mercenary said digging her face into her knees and moaning, _"that woman was my sister, that fucking bastard killed my sister!" _

Nooney shuffled over to her stroking her hair not knowing what to do about her plunging spirits. "It's okay Liz, I'm sure Thomson had a parachute, he probably glided her safely to the ground… I think… Well I know he's still alive… I read about this guy, he wouldn't allow a woman to be killed if within his power to stop it…" The soldier said as Elizabeth replied, "That's not even the worse part… I had a chance to _kill _Tim Dunson in cold blood after he told his story to the senior executives and I passed it up for reconnaissance duty." Nooney checked his side of the trench for enemy activity then sat back down and continued to listen.

"Bison now plans on using this alternate world and its people as subjects to test his new military bio-weapons on. Basically he's planning on throwing everything he's got at us until there's nothing left… Kinda stupid huh?" Elizabeth asked as Nooney nodded in agreement. "One question… If you know for sure that Bison Corp's goanna whoop are Asses, then why are ya sittin around here waitin ta die?" He asked drawing up his SA-7. "Because other than my sister, who's probably dead by now or in a prison camp waiting to be experimented on, all I have is you…" Elizabeth replied smiling warmly on Nooney as he froze in awe. "Huh?" He managed to choke out, accidentally firing his stinger launcher into the sky. The thermal-guided missile veered in circles suddenly exploding on an unseen object, sending a decloaking hovercraft crashing on an empty hut, starting a fire on three neighboring huts.

"Oopse…" Nooney said in a now embarrassed voice as Elizabeth yelled, "Bison Hover crafts, fire at will!" With that said, the villagers flocked from their trenches, huts and fox holes spraying the sky with rifle-fire as killer suits leaped from their now smoking hovercrafts in groups of ten, opening fire on the resistance with OICW E.M assault rifles. After the hovercrafts came crashing down in one big, flaming deluge of flesh-entwined twisted metal, Elizabeth and Nooney dropped their SA-7 stinger launchers in the trench and charged out with their primary weapons blaring at the enemy suits. Nooney firing his secondary weapon, a British Bren light machinegun, and Elizabeth with her dual, armor-piercing Beretta M12 submachineguns.

At the bunker on the north side of the town, Mileena laid next to Tommy in a prone position, gunning down the enemy paratroopers with her newly acquired 7.62mm Degtyarev-Pekhotny-28 light-machinegun. (DP-28) As she went to reload the ammunition disk, an artillery barrage began, towering black clouds of flying, glowing-red shrapnel erupting in the streets, flinging dozens of dismembered bodies into the air as the density of falling mortars increased dramatically within seconds. _"Let's get outta here! Ryan and the others are heading for the caves to the east! We can take cover there!" _Tommy yelled staggering off the roof of the bunker as a mortar impacted close by.

Mileena jumped off the back of the bunker drawing up an M1A1 Bazooka from the stockpile and struggling into a backpack equipped with an MRS. The assassin then ran towards a dozen M110A2 howitzers in the distance hoping to draw their fire away from the village and allow Tommy and the others to escape. "Mileena, what _the hell are you doin!" _ Tommy yelled as the constant explosions muffled his voice. "Damn!" He added as the woman disappeared into the foliage, giving him no choice but to turn and run with the others. Several minutes later, after dodging dozens of falling mortars and coming down with six cases of shellshock; Tommy found cover in the deep caves with the others. "Ryan? Ryan?" He called searching the crowds of injured soldiers and civilians, stammering over his own feet as the 203mm mortars pounding the surface gave him relapses of shellshock.

"What Tomas." Ryan said standing up with a blank stare on his face. "Wa-where's Mileena?" He asked sounding desperate as Tommy replied, "I'm sorry man, she just up and took the M1A1 bazooka from the bunker and an MRS, then took-off after those enemy howitzers shelling us from the north." Ryan staggered back in dismay chanting in a low voice, _"oh my god. Oh my god I gotta go help her she can't do this alone." _With that said, Ryan grabbed up his M9A1 bazooka, and his Thompson submachinegun, putting on his ceramic titanium helmet and darting out the cave entrance just as a mortar shell collapsed it, sealing everyone in. Outside, Ryan ran in zigzags, staggering to his knees over and over from both the thought of Mileena being killed or captured by Bison, and the bursts of wind emissions from the mortars exploding all around him. When he got closer to the village, Ryan saw that the dossal turret and nose-mounted quad 20mm guns on the Phoenix-class B-17 were firing at targets to the north as 203mm explosive shells impacted on the thick, Woven Venlar fuselage.

The anti-tank gunner sprinted towards the B-17 in the near distance in a strait line, not bothering to stop when a 90mm mortar shell fell 2ft in front of him, flinging the soldier about fifty yards toward his intended target, dropping him on his face. When Ryan got up, he found himself suffering from shellshock as he staggered onward through the shrapnel mayhem. Suddenly, he was startled out of shellshock when a tower of black and yellow flames shot up in the distance, followed by additional smoke-trails as clusters of explosions discharged around the main one. About 120yards north of the now smoldering village of Zansatsu, Mileena sat in a crouched position behind a rock cluttered by bushes, reloading her M1A1 bazooka, whispering to herself, _"one down. Eleven to go…"_ After sliding the 55mm shaped charge down the 61inch tube, Mileena crept forward taking aim at the howitzer tank as it fired a burst from its gun. Before she could pull the magneto on the side of her bazooka, one of the agents unnoticed by Mileena, sitting on one of the armored skirts on the artillery vehicle, opened fire with an OICW.

In a quick motion, Mileena darted backwards, firing her anti-tank weapon and hitting the Patton tank behind her intended target. As the twisted chassis rolled on its side, hundreds of fiery darts lunged in her direction, flinging pieces of bark at her face as she retreated to safety. She took cover in a small abandoned foxhole, quickly reloading her M1A1 as footsteps haunted her beyond the crater wall. Suddenly she felt herself being violently flung around in the foxhole, gargling blood as the beating continued. Pulling out her sais while being forced onto her back, Mileena clawed at the dark figure looming over her in the now midnight-blue sky; smiling as the blood dripped onto her face mask and into her mouth where it tasted sweet to the tongue.

After converting the stealth attacker into a dismembered corpse in the corner of the foxhole, the assassin drew up her M1A1 bazooka and fired a shaped charge into the howitzer closest her position; shielding her face and later curling up in a ball as the 203mm ammunition discharged above the twisted, flaming, chassis. Once the sputtering clusters of explosions died down into the night, only the grumbling engines on the other ten howitzers could be heard. No footsteps, no artillery bursts, just engines… Reloading her bazooka, Mileena felt uneasy about the situation. Something was terribly wrong with this picture.

Trying not to disturb the crescendo of running engines, Mileena eased out of the foxhole gripping the killer-tube tightly to prevent its aged chassis from rattling. She did a double take at the forest clearing to the north, then creeping forward towards the howitzer tanks and pausing with a gasp. The sun had fully set by now and the moon enclosed by dark clouds, provided very little lighting. At this point, Mileena was praying for an agent to come at her, she felt comfortable with them, but not with an eerie silence such as this one. Suddenly a fleshy crack is heard somewhere off to the left of her followed by a clatter of gunfire and a sharp but low pitch cry, just above a whisper.

Something was breathing heavily in that direction, she could hear it clear as day. As inhuman and versatile as the war machines she'd battled before. This sound came from some type of animal… Straining herself to both hold the 18pound weapon, and hold it tightly for noise dampening, Mileena slowly crept towards the ominously extinguished howitzer chassis, aiming in the direction of the hissing respiratory sound incase anything happened to pounce at her from the darkness.

When she got to the twisted chassis, she realized that the engines on the other howitzers had stopped running. Now convinced of additional fowl play, aside from the killer suits and mercs of course; Mileena crept around the front of the twisted M110A2 chassis, dropping to a prone position and moving under the tank where she aimed out of a hole in the track-grouping, provided by a missing wheel. The assassin is baffled and taken aback as she stares at the howitzer tank across from her. The dark clouds enclosing the moon had just dissipated, providing an ambient lighting that revealed the object of her curiosity. The row of howitzers that once pounded the hill-slopes around Zansatsu were not only covered in entrails, but floating 20ft off the ground and literally melting. Out of a mixture of instinct and the craving for a sense of closure, the assassin fired a shaped charge at the floating, flesh-ensnared vehicle.

The charge impacted on some sort of translucent object, which ensnared the floating howitzer chassis with twining bolts of energy; which eventually faded out, revealing an armor plated, forty-two foot teethed worm with a bloody gash just under its head. Now coming to the conclusion that the other shimmering, floating howitzer chassis were actually swallowed by cloaked creatures alike or similar to this one; Mileena sprinted towards the village 111yards away, staggering as the worm's movements violently shook the earth beneath her. When she got to the pulverized wooden bunker at the north entrance of Zansatsu, she found Ryan just climbing over the ruined structure. When she addressed him, the soldier sighed in relief then noticed the towering teethed worm flanking them from the tree line. "Ryan, we have to get back to the cave, the agents are all dead!" She said starting up the demolished bunker but being pulled back down by Ryan.

"No, the mortars collapsed the entrance right after I came out to help you, we have to head east, it's our only chance!" The soldier hollered over the rumbling of the earth, pulling her towards the eastern slope bordering the town. "My father's palace is in that direction, it's the tallest man-made structure in Outworld we can't miss it! It's probably where the rest of your team retreated during yesterday's offensive!" Mileena said, as the worm seemed to ignore the two climbing the grassy slope, canting its head at the moon as if observing it. "Hey why'd it stop chasing us?" She asked as Ryan turned to look. "Ya know? If you really take a good look at it, you can see why Bison corp. was banded from the bio-weapons industry." The private said resting in the tall grass, using his M9A1 bazooka to keep his balance.

"Why do you say that?" Mileena asked. "Well, for one thing, I don't see any ears, or eyes. I'll bet those man-eating dicks didn't even know they've swallowed howitzer chassis, or killed the agents on the ground. They can't tell the difference between us, vehicles, agents, mercs; they're just mindless, ignorant killing machines." Ryan said as the worm in the near distance let out a metallic monotonous bellow, sinking back into the ground out of site. Once the rumbling from the worm's tremors ceased, faint clatters of gunfire echoed in from the east, drawing Ryan and Mileena over the slope out of curiosity.

About 12kilometers northwest of Kahn's palace, the brazen and fear-struck Xenia, daughter of Zangyaku, crouched within the safety of a small depression in the dirt, cluttered by tall dead grass. Something fired a machinegun at her from out of the darkness, scaring her into hiding like a timid animal. After the crash with her dragon kidnapper, Xenia had made out quite well, staying hidden from the Bison corp. patrols and killing agents that did spot her. But now it was dark again, and her ability to see was hindered by the thick blankets of branches and leaves shielding her from the moonlight.

Her current stalker was capable of seeing in the night, aided by a pair of infrared glasses, rendering her helpless, only being armed with a Wakazashi blade her father had given to her earlier that week. Aside from the knot in her stomach, Xenia was lonely. Even before the firestorm, her father's students hardly addressed her. She usually trained alone, or with her father, she had no friends, Xenia was a hermit. She hardly remembered Jade; especially since the two were friends back at the ages of 6 and 7. Xenia was 3000yrs old now, though to look at her, she appeared to be a 16year old Earth woman. For two days, she'd wondered the vast patches of desert and forests, killing everything that posed a threat, and hiding from anything she didn't understand.

After about a minute of sitting in the hole, Xenia crept out into the open, checking the overhanging tree branches for ambushes and attentively listening to her environment, just as her father had trained her to do. Grasping the diamond-embedded handle of her Wakazashi blade, Xenia crept up to a dark figure standing in a prone position but facing the other direction. Then with a quick motion, she drove her sword into the person's right shoulder and out of its waist, feeling warm blood run down the blade and onto her hands as she drew back from the crumpling in-half corpse.

Xenia crouched over the dismembered body and drew up his AW50 sniper rifle by the stock-embedded handle. Not understanding how to use the weapon, she slammed it against a tree trunk until the infrared scope broke off the chassis and fell at her feet. Tossing the rifle to the side, Xenia took up the warm device and peered through it, finding that she could see clearly in the nearly pitch black environment. As she slowly rotated with the scope to her right eye, she spotted a Patton tank in the distance, about 6kilometers away, its maingun firing at something further away but unseen by her. Suddenly the scope lit up in an irritable florescent green; Xenia accidentally turning off the infrared view mode on the scope, while adjusting her grip. When she peered at the Patton tank again, she found only a twisted chassis revved in flames as another dark-colored tracked vehicle could be seen faintly, flanking the wreck from the background.

Xenia drew down the scope closing her eyes and listening to a series sounds carried by the winds blowing in from the east. Within the orchestra of dynamic sounds, the warrior picks up blurred clatters of gunfire and clusters of high-pitched explosions, sounding in three to six round bursts. Xenia fumbled with the scope until the inferred mode came on again and peered into the distance, where the gunfire was coming from. Adjusting her grip again as she scanned around the twisted Patton tank chassis, she activated the 12X magnification mode, drawing back at the pail scar-faced commando totting the desert camouflaged anti-tank weapon which now occupied the entire scope. _"Demons…" _She whispered as a skeleton with fiery yellow eyes dressed in a yellow and black ninja suit strayed in front of the burning chassis holding an agent's head in his right hand and started laughing with the commando.

About 70yrds from the front gates of the Bison air base, dangling fifty feet in the air from a grand eucalyptus tree, Millennia Dunson stirs awake, drawing back from her alien surroundings after sleeping for two days. She started to walk forward then realizing she was hanging above the earth from a tall tree. She looked up to find that her parachute had become tangled in the branches overhead, suddenly becoming uneasy about the situation. _"Wait a minute, Tim shot me in the back and tossed me off the plane at nearly 50,000ft. I don't remember bringing a parachute." _Millennia thought reaching for a metallic object causing her back discomfort.

Nearly dropping the object Millennia is taken aback by the polished, jet-black, Mp-40 submachinegun held tightly in her grasp. "Now I know I didn't bring one of these with me…"She said in a low voice throwing the strap over her shoulder and then realizing a nauseating pain in her middle back. Out of curiosity, Millennia reached for her middle back pausing as her long fingers brushed against a cluster of thin stick-like objects, each about the size of an ink pen.

Wrapping her fingers around the objects, Millennia pulled the utensils out of her left kidney and stared blankly at the drug-needles now rolling side to side in the palm of her hand. Holding one of the needle syringes up to the ambient moonlight, Millennia read the words, _'Zinc Rapid-Healing Solution, By Knackamichie Incorporated. Made in Nagasaki Imperial Japan.' _ "The Hellion? I remember him diving out the plane after me. He must have given me his parachute and pulled the cord, he fell to his doom to save me? Even after I betrayed him and his crew?"

She asked herself in a low voice, unhinging the straps of her backpack from the parachute cables and sliding onto a thick branch. As she started forward on the branch, wobbling side to side in black high-heals, she noticed how heavy the backpack was and set it down to diagnose its contents. The Bren Mk-1 light machinegun was part of it the M.R.S was the main reason. Not really understanding what the stainless steel box was, she decided Thomson left it to her for a good reason and packed up her weapons; continuing to maneuver down the tall tree.

When she came off the bottom of the tree, rolling several feet before ending face flat, she was instantly met with gunfire. She was spotted by killer suit patrols; they had been searching for a paratrooper reported to have landed near or on their HQ. Straddling behind the tree, Millennia drew up her Bren Mk1, firing several bursts into the ringleader's head, being surprised when the bullets bounce off his face. All four agents advanced silently, the bellowing of their SG-550s preventing the woman from firing back. Without thinking about it very much, Millennia darted out from behind the tree holding down the trigger of her light machinegun as she flanked the enemy. Suddenly, her gun ran dry, this distraction allowed an agent to get a clear shot at her, the woman spinning to the floor in a bleeding heap as six-round bursts ravaged her arms and lower torso. After being reduced to a squirming victimized prisoner of war, Millennia paused as the agents formed a circle around her and took aim with their SG-550s.

Shutting her eyes and hugging her aching torso, Millennia started to cry, letting out an agonizing scream when gunshots are heard from all around her. Ten seconds later, the clatters of machinegun fire died down, and only a paced pistol discharge could be heard. Opening her eyes, Millennia gawked at the circle of dead agents, panning behind her to find Joe, still aiming her Berretta 92F into the cluster of corpses. _"Major?" _She asked in a shaky voice as her wounds pulsed with a mild almost dull pain. "Ms. Dunson, I thought you died on the plane?" Jo asked helping her up and pulling her away from the dead agents. "No, I uh, Thomson swiped his parachute over to me and pulled the cord." Millennia said as a pair of machineguns bellowed in the distance.

"Did he give you that vest too?" Jo asked starting in the direction of gunfire. Surprised, Millennia looked down at her torso, finding a tattered-looking flak-vest wrapped around her gray blouse. "Oh…" She managed to choke out, realizing she'd been shot over twenty times. Once the two come into a clearing, still following the louder growing clatters of gunfire, Jo pans down at Millennia's feet, "honey, your feet are goanna fall-off in those high-heals. Comon, I'll take you back to my hideout, I have some extra clothes there you can borrow." Jo commented pulling her towards the beachhead.


End file.
